THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Crvir 


THE    RISE 


OF 


THE   RUSSIAN   EMPIRE 


BY 


>  HECTOR    H.    MUNRO 


"On  se  flatterait  en  vain  de  connaitre  la  Russie  actuelle,  si  Ton  ne 
remontait  plus  haul  dans  son  histoire."— Le  Pere  Pierling. 


BOSTON 
L.    C.    PAGE    AND    COMPANY 

LONDON 

GRANT    RICHARDS 

I  900 


•I 


i 


I 


Dk 


M 


HI 


PREFACE 

With  the  exception  of  a  translation  of  Rambaud's 
somewhat  disjointed  work,  there  is  no  detailed  history 
of  Russia  in  the  English  language  at  all  approaching 
modern  standards.  The  reigns  of  Petr  the  Great  and 
of  some  of  his  successors  down  to  the  present  day — a 
period  covering  only  200  years — have  been  minutely 
dealt  with,  but  the  earlier  history  of  a  nation  with 
whom  we  are  coming  ever  closer  into  contact  is  to  the 
English  reader  almost  a  blank.  Whether  the  work 
now  submitted  will  adequately  fill  the  gap  remains  to 
be  seen  ;  such  is  its  object. 

The  rule  observed  with  regard  to  the  rendering  of 
names  of  places  and  persons  has  been  to  follow  the  spell- 
ing of  the  country  to  which  they  belong  as  closely  as 
possible.  The  spelling  of  Russian  words  employed,  and 
curiously  distorted,  by  English  and  other  historians,  has 
been  brought  back  to  its  native  forms.  There  is  no 
satisfactory  reason,  for  instance,  why  the  two  final  letters 
of  boyarin  should   be   dropped,    or  why   they   should 


viii  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 

reappear  tacked  on  to  the  equally  Russian  word  Kreml. 
Moskva  is  scarcely  recognisable  in  its  Anglicised  form, 
and  Kiev  can  only  be  rendered  Kieff  on  a  system 
which  would  radically  disturb  the  spelling  of  most 
English  towns. 

A  list  of  works  consulted  is  appended,  arranged 
somewhat  in  the  order  in  which  they  have  been  found 
useful,  precedence  being  given  to  those  which  have 
been  most  largely  drawn  upon. 

IIIXTOR   H.   MUNRO. 
1S99. 


WORKS  CONSULTED 

Karamzin — Histoire  de  I'empire  russe.       1819.      (French  translation 
by  MM.  St.  Thomas  et  de  Divoff.) 

,     S.  SOLOV'EV — Istoriya  Rossie.      1858. 

Th.  Schiemann — Russland,  Polen  und  Livland.      1885. 

A.  Ram  BAUD — History  of  Russia.      1879.      (English  translation.) 

L.  Paris  (translator) — Chronique  de  Nestor.      1834. 

N.  KOSTOMAROV — Rousskaya    Istoriya   v  jhizneopisaniyakh   eya    glav- 
nieyshikh  dieyatelen.      1874. 

,    N.  KosTOMAROV — Sievemo  Rousskiya  Narodopravstva.      1886. 

Sir  H.  H.  Howorth — History  of  the  Mongols. 

Anonymous — Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen.      1879. 

Von  Hammer-Purgstall — Geschichte  der  goldenen  Horde.      1840. 

„  „  Histoire  de  lEmpire  Ottoman.     (French 

translation.) 

E.  A.  Freeman — Ottoman  Power  in  Europe.      1877. 

J.  W.  Zinkeisen — Geschichte  des  osmanischen  Reich  in  Europa. 

y  Gennad     Karpov — Istoriya     Borbui     Moskovskago    Gosoudarstvo    s 
Pol'sko-Litovskim,  1462-1508.      1867. 

"V.  N." — Iz  Istorie  Moskvui,  11 47- 1703.      1896. 
E.  A.  SoLOV'EV — Ivan  IV.  Groznie.      1893. 
^  N.  A.  Polevoi — Tzarstvovanie  loanna  Groznago.      1859. 
Le  pere  Pierling — La  Russie  et  lOrient.      1891. 
„  „  Rome  et  Demetrius.      1878. 

Marquis  de  Noailles — Henri  de  Valois  et  la  Pologne  en   1572. 
1867. 

V.    B.   Antonovitch — Otcherk    Istorie   Velikago    Kniajhestva    Litov- 
skago.      1878. 

N.  G.  Riesenkampff — Der  Deutsche  Hof  zu  Nowgorod.      1854. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 


Laszlo  Szalav — Geschichte  Ungarns.      1874. 

A.   N.  MURAV'EV — History  of  the  Russian  Church.      1842.      (English 

translation  by  R.  W.  Blackmore.) 
A.  Pember — Ivan  the  Terrible. 
A.  M.  H.  J.  Stokvis — Manuel  d'Histoire,  de  Gent.<alogie,  et  do  Chrono- 

logie,  etc.      1889. 
Bar.  Sigismund   von    Herberstein — Rerum  Moscoviticorum   mm 

mentarii.      185 1.     (English  translation  by  R.  H.  Major.) 


i 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    I 

PAGE 

The  Dawn  of  Russian  History       .  i 


CHAPTER    H 

The  Coming  of  the  Varangians  and  the  Building  of 

KiEviAN  Russia  .  .  .  .  .14 


CHAPTER    ni 
The  Feuds  of  the  House  of  Rurik  .  •  •         53 

CHAPTER    IV 
The  Coming  of  the  Mongols  .  .  .  .81 

CHAPTER    V 
"  The  Years  that  THE  Locust  HATH  eaten  "  96 

CHAPTER    VI 
The  Growing  of  the  Germ  .  .122 

CHAPTER    VII 

The   Last   of   the   Paleologi   and   the   First    of    the 

Autocrats         .  .  .  .  .  .149 


xii  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 


CHAPTER    VIII 

rACK 

Ivan  Groznie  '95 


CHAPTER    IX 
The  Great  BoYARiN  .  •  •  •  -253 

CHAPTER    X 
The  Phantom  Tzar  .  .  •  271 


CHAPTER    XI  / 

"This  Side  THE  Hill"  .  .  •  .  •       3©^ 


1. — Table  of  Russian  Princes  of  the  Line  of  Rurik, 

from  sviatosl-w  i.  .  .  •  327 

II. — House  of  Mstislav  Vladimirovitch  328 

III. — House  of  Souzdal-Vladimik   and  Sub- Houses  of 

Moskva  and  Tver  .  .  .  •  •  3^9 

IV. — Grand  Princes  and  Tzars  of  Moskovy      .  330 


GLOSSARY  .  •        J3« 

INDEX  .......        332 


< 


LIST    OF    MAPS 

Russia             ......  Frontispiece 

Grand  Principality  ok  Moskva                                .  .194 

Plan  of  Moscow                                                         .  .270 


CHAPTER    I 

THE    DAWN    OF    RUSSIAN    HISTORY 

Russia,  which  is  blessed  with  a  rich  variety  of  tribes  and 
peoples,  the  despair  of  the  ethnographical  geographer,  who 
can  scarcely  find  enough  distinctive  colours  wherewith  to 
denote  them  all  on  his  maps,  is  characterised  by  a  singular 
uniformity  of  physical  conditions  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  its  huge  extent.  Geographically  speaking,  it  is 
difficult  to  determine  what  are  the  exact  limits  of  the  region 

o 

known  as  Russia-in-Europe,  the  Oural  Mountains,  which 
look  such  an  excellent  political  barrier  on  paper,  being 
really  no  barrier  at  all,  certainly  not  what  is  known  as  a 
scientific  frontier.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  are  less  a  range 
of  mountains  than  a  chain  of  low  table-lands,  having  pre- 
cisely the  same  conditions  of  soil,  flora,  and  fauna  on  either 
side  of  them.  Zoologically  the  valley  of  the  Irtuish  forms  a 
much  stronger  line  of  demarcation,  but  much  of  Russia  west 
of  the  Ourals  coincides  more  nearly  in  physical  aspect  with 
the  great  Asiatic  plain  than  it  does  with  the  remainder  of 
Europe.  Southward  and  westward  from  this  fancy  boundary 
stretches  a  vast  expanse  of  salt,  sandy,  almost  barren  steppe- 
land  ;  this  gives  way  in  time  to  large  tracts  of  more  or  less 
fertile  steppe,  partaking  more  of  the  character  of  prairie  than 
of  desert,  bearing  in  spring  and  early  summer  a  heavy  crop 
of  grasses,  high  enough  in  places  to  conceal  a  horse  and 
his  rider.  Merging  on  this  in  a  northerly  direction  is  the 
"  black-soil  "  belt,  a  magnificent  wheat-growing  country,  which 
well  merits  the  title  of  the  Granary  of  Europe.  Northward 
again  is  a  region  of  dense  forest,  commencing  with  oaks  and 

6 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


Other  deciduous  trees,  and  becoming  more  and  more  coniferous 
as  it  stretches  towards  the  Arctic  circle,  where  pine  and  fir 
disappear,  and  give  way  to  the  Tundras,  moss-clad*  wastes, 
frozen  nine  months  out  of  the  twelve,  the  home  of  reindeer  and 
Samoved.  Over  all  this  wide  extent  the  snows  and  frosts  of 
the  Russian  winter  fall  with  an  almost  equal  rigour,  though 
for  varying  duration  of  time.  Except  on  the  cast,  the 
country  possesses  strongly-marked  natural  boundaries  ;  on 
the  south-east  rises  the  huge  pile  of  the  Kaukasus  Mountains, 
flanked  east  and  west  by  the  Kaspian  and  Black  Seas 
respectively  ;  on  the  south-west  lie  the  Karpathians,  while 
from  north-west  to  north  the  Baltic  is  almost  connected  by 
lake,  swamp,  and  the  deep  fissure  of  the  White  Sea  with  the 
Arctic  Ocean.  Broadly  speakmg,  nearly  the  whole  area 
enclosed  within  these  boundaries  is  one  unbroken  plain, 
intersected  and  watered  by  several  fine  rivers,  of  which  the 
Volga  and  the  Dniepr  arc,  historically,  the  most  important. 
This,  then,  is  the  theatre  on  which  was  worked  out  the  drama 
of  Russian  national  development. 

It  will  now  be  necessary  to  glance  at  the  racial  and 
political  conditions  which  prevailed  at  the  period  when  the 
curtain  rises  on  mediaeval  Russian  history.  First  as  to  the 
ethnology  and  distribution  of  the  Slavs,  a  branch  of  whom 
was  to  be  the  nucleus  round  which  the  empire  of  all  the 
Russias  was  to  gather.  The  lore  of  peoples  and  of  tongues 
has  enabled  scientists  to  assign  to  the  Slavs  a  place  in  the 
great  Aryan  family  from  which  descended  the  stocks  that 
made  their  dwelling  on  European  soil.  Exactly  when  their 
wanderings  brought  them  into  their  historic  home-lands  it  is 
difficult  to  hazard,  nor  is  it  possible  to  do  more  than  specu- 
late as  to  whence  they  came  in  that  distant  yesterday  of 
human  spate  and  eddy.  At  the  epoch  when  Russian  history, 
in  a  political  sense,  may  be  said  to  start  into  existence  (the 
commencement  of  the  ninth  century),  the  distribution  of  the 
Slavs  is  more  easy  to  trace  ;  with  the  exception  of  an  off- 
shoot in  the  south-east  of  Europe,  occupying  Scrvia,  Dalmatia, 
Croatia,  and  Slavonia,  they  appear  to  have  been  gathered  in 
a  fairly  compact  though  decentralised  mass  in  what  may  be 


THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


termed  North  Central  Europe.  Holstein,  Mecklenburg,  and 
Pomerania,  roughly  speaking,  formed  the  country  of  the 
Wends  ;  another  group,  the  Czechs  and  Poles,  inhabited 
Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Poland  ;  while  a  fourth  body,  destined 
to  become  the  most  important,  was  established  in  North-west 
Russia,  hemmed  in  by  Finns  on  the  north,  Turks  and  Avars 
on  the  east  and  south.  These  latter  Slavs,  the  germ  of  the 
future  Russian  nation,  lived  in  tribal  communities  in  the 
midst  of  the  mighty  forests  of  oak,  pine,  birch,  willow,  etc., 
which  stood  thick  around  the  basin-lands  of  the  Upper  Dniepr, 
Dvina,  and  Volkhov,  and  the  source  of  the  Volga.  These 
dense  fastnesses  they  shared  with  the  wolf,  boar,  lynx,  fox, 
bear,  beaver,  elk,  aurochs,  deer,  otter,  squirrel,  and  marten, 
which  latter  especially  furnished  them  with  a  valuable  article 
of  commerce,  the  Russian  marten  skins  being  highly  prized 
in  the  fur  markets  of  Europe.  Seals  abounded  on  their 
sea-coast  and  in  Lake  Ladoga  ;  the  numerous  swamps  were 
the  home  of  the  wild  goose,  swan,  and  crane  ;  the  eagle, 
hawk,  raven,  cuckoo,  and  daw  were  familiar  to  them,  while 
pigeons  were  early  domesticated  among  their  dwellings. 

In  their  primitive  state  the  Slavs  had  this  obvious 
differentiation  from  their  Asiatic  neighbours — though  essenti- 
ally pastoral  they  were  not  nomadic.  The  village,  as  a  unit 
of  politico-social  life,  had  arrived  with  them  at  a  high  pitch 
of  development,  which  involves  the  supposition  of  long-existing 
contributory  causes,  the  herding  together,  namely,  of  a 
permanent  community  of  human  beings,  dependent  on  each 
other  for  mutual  convenience,  security,  and  general  well- 
being.  The  viir,  commune,  or  village  was  in  the  first  place 
the  natural  outcome  of  a  patriarchal  system  other  than 
nomad,  the  expansion  of  the  primitive  association  of 
members  of  one  or  more  families  who  had  grown  up  together 
under  the  common  attraction  of  a  convenient  water-supply,  a 
suitable  grazing  ground,  or  a  wood  much  haunted  by  honey- 
bees.^ The  development  of  agricultural  pursuits  necessarily 
gave  a  greater  measure  of  stability  to  village  life,  and   the 

^  The  gathering  of  honey  and  wax  from   the  combs  of  wild  bees  formed  an 
important  industry  among  the  Polish  and  Russian  Slavs. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


peasant  insensibly  rooted  himself  to  that  soil  in  which  he  had 
sown  his  crops  and  planted  his  fruit-trees.  Thus  far  the 
life-story  of  the  tribal  Slavs  travelled  along  familiar  lines,  but 
here  it  came  to  an  abrupt  halt.  The  village  unit  acquired  a 
well-defined  theory  and  practice  of  government,  but  it  did 
not  germinate  into  the  town.  The  few  townships  that  were 
to  be  found  in  Slavic  lands  owed  their  being  for  the  most  part 
not  to  any  inward  process  of  accumulation,  but  to  e.vtraneous 
and  exceptional  circumstances.  While  Teutonic  jxroples 
were  raising  unto  themselves  burgs  and  cities,  and  banding 
themselves  in  guilds  and  kindred  munici|)al  associations,  the 
Slavs  remained  content  with  such  protection  as  their  forests 
and  swamps  afforded,  such  organisation  as  their  village 
institutions  supplied.  The  reason  for  this  limitation  in  social 
progress  was  an  organic  one  ;  in  the  Slav  character  the 
commercial  spirit,  in  its  more  active  sense,  was  almost 
entirely  wanting.  Trade  by  barter,  of  course,  e.visted  among 
them,  but  their  medium  of  exchange  had  not  got  beyond  the 
currency  of  marten  and  .sable  skins.  The  market,  the  wharf, 
and  the  storehouse  were  not  with  them  institutions  of  native 
growth. 

From  their  earth  of  forest,  swamp,  and  stream,  which 
paled  them  in  from  an  outer  world,  and  from  the  sky  above, 
which  they  had  in  common  with  all  living  folks,  the  eastern 
Slavs  had  drawn  inspirations  for  the  thought-weaving  of  a 
comprehensive  catalogue  of  gods.  Their  imaginations  gave 
deific  being  to  the  sun,  moon,  stars,  winil,  water,  fire,  and  air, 
but  most  of  all  they  reverenced  the  lightning.  In  their  dark, 
over-.shaded  forest  homes  it  was  natural  that  the  sun,  which 
exercised  such  mystic  sway  in  the  blazing  lands  of  the 
Orient,  should  yield  place  to  the  swift,  dread  might  which 
could  split  great  trees  in  its  spasm  of  destruction  and  shake 
the  heavens  with  its  attendant  thunder.  Accordingly  the 
arch-god  of  Slavic  myth  was  Pcroun,  in  whom  was  personified 
the  spirit  of  the  lightning.  Under  the  name  of  Svaroga 
(the  different  tribes  probably  had  variant  names  for  the  same 
god,  and  sometimes,  perhaps,  varying  gods  for  a  common 
name)  he  was  worshipped   as  the   liegetter  of  the   Fire  and 


THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


Sun  Gods.  The  latter  was  sometimes  known  as  "  Dajh'bog," 
but  in  old  folk-songs  the  Sun  is  Dajh'bog's  grandchild.  The 
Wind-God  was  designated  "  Stribog."  The  personality  of 
these  nature-deities  was  not  left  entirely  to  the  worshippers' 
fancy,  Peroun  at  least  being  represented  in  effigy  by  more 
than  one  idol,  which  conformed  to  the  human  pattern  from 
which  so  few  divinities  have  been  able  to  escape.  A 
slightly  more  advanced  conception  of  the  supernatural  was 
embodied  in  the  worship  of  Kolyada,  a  beneficent  spirit  who 
was  supposed  to  visit  the  farms  and  villages  in  mid-winter 
and  bring  fertility  to  the  pent-in  herds  and  frost-bound  seeds. 
The  festival  in  honour  of  Kolyada  was  held  about  the  25  th 
of  December,  the  date  when  the  Sun  was  supposed  to  triumph 
over  the  death  in  which  Nature  had  gripped  him  and  to 
enter  on  his  new  span  of  life. 

Blended  with  Eastern  mysticism  there  was,  no  doubt,  in 
their  religious  ideas  a  considerable  sprinkling  of  Northern 
magic.  In  their  dark  and  lonely  forest  dwellings  there  was 
likely  to  be  something  more  than  a  natural  dread  of  that 
lurking  prowler  which  stamped  such  an  eerie  impression 
upon  the  imaginations  of  primitive  folks  in  many  lands. 
The  shambling  form,  the  wailing  howl,  and  the  narrow  eyes 
that  gleamed  wicked  hunger  in  the  winter  woods  gave  the 
wolf  a  reputation  for  uncanny  powers,  and  the  old  Slavic 
folk-songs  clearly  set  forth  a  belief  in  wehr-wolf  lore. 

In  the  matter  of  disposing  of  their  dead  the  Slavs  of 
Eastern  Europe  had  a  variety  of  customs  and  usages,  some 
of  which  were  probably  local  practices  of  the  different  tribes. 
In  general  the  body  was  burned  and  the  bones  enclosed  in 
a  small  vessel,  which  was  placed  upon  a  post  near  the  road- 
side. Grave-burial  was  also  in  vogue,  hill-sides  being  chosen 
for  that  purpose.  Drinking  and  feasting  were  usual  accom- 
paniments of  the  funeral  rites,  while  the  opposite  extreme 
was  sometimes  exhibited  by  the  slashing  and  scratching  of 
the  mourners'  faces  in  token  of  griefs 

Thickly  mingled  with  the  Slav  homesteads  in  the  lake 
regions  of  Peipus,  Ladoga,  and  the  forest  country  stretching 

^  S.  Solov'ev,  Istoriya  Rossie. 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


eastwards,  were  the  outlying  villages  of  the  Finns,  who  seem 
to  have  lived  in  harmony  with  their  alien  neighbours  without 
at  the  same  time  showing  the  least  tendency  towards  a 
fusion  of  national  characteristics.  Branches  of  the  same 
people,  Tchouds  and  Livs,  occupied  the  lands  of  the  Baltic 
sea-board  on  the  north-west.  South  of  these,  wedged  in 
between  the  Slavs  of  Poland  and  those  of  the  east,  in  the 
marshy  forest-lands  of  the  Niemen  basin,  were  the  Lit'uanians, 
a  people  of  Indo-European  origin,  who  were  divided  into  the 
sub-tribes  of  Lit'uanians,  Letts,  and  Borussians  (Prussians;. 
Of  doubtful  affinity  with  the  first-named  were  the  Yatvyags, 
a  black-bearded  race  dwelling  on  the  extreme  eastern  limit 
of  the  Polish  march.  The  Lit'uanians  were  even  more  ill- 
provided  with  towns  and  strongholds  than  their  Slav 
neighbours,  but  they  had  at  least  a  definite  system  of  tribal 
government,  remarkable  for  the  division  of  the  sovereign 
power  between  the  prince  {^Rikgs)  and  the  high-priesthood, 
the  former  having  control  of  outside  affairs,  including  the 
important  business  of  waging  war,  the  latter  administering 
matters  of  justice  and  religion.  The  gods  of  the  Lit'uanians 
were  worshipped  under  the  symbolism  of  sacred  trees,  and 
the  religious  rites  included  the  putting  to  death  of  deformed 
or  sickly  children  ;  this  was  enacted,  not  with  the  idea  that 
bloodshed  and  suffering  were  acceptable  to  the  Higher 
Powers,  but  rather  because  the  latter  were  supposed  to 
demand  a  standard  of  healthy  and  physical  well-being  on 
the  part  of  their  worshippers.^ 

In  the  lands  lying  to  the  south  and  south-east,  where 
the  forests  gave  way  bit  b)-  bit  to  the  open  wolds  of  the 
steppe  country,  the  Slavs  had  for  neighbours  various  tribes 
of  nomads,  for  the  most  part  of  Turko-P'innish  origin,  and 
these  completed  the  encircling  band  of  stranger  folk  by 
which  the  primitive  forest  dwellers  were  shut  in  from  the 
outside  world.  At  this  yonder  world  it  is  now  necessary  to 
take  a  glimpse. 

Europe  towards  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  was 
still  simmering  in   a  state  of  semi-chaos,  out  of  which  were 

*  S.  Solov'ev, 


THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


shortly  to  be  evolved  many  of  the  national  organisms  which 
have  lasted  to  modern  times.  Charles  the  Great,  by  the 
supreme  folly  of  dividing  amongst  his  three  sons  the  empire 
he  had  so  carefully  built  up,  had  to  a  great  degree  undone 
the  work  of  his  life,  and  political  barriers  are  rather  difficult 
to  trace  after  the  partition  of  Verdun  (843),  though  in  the 
dominions  assigned  to  Charles  II.  some  semblance  of  the 
later  kingdom  of  France  may  be  traced.  Germany  was  in  a 
transition  state  ;  the  strong  hand  which  had  established 
dependent  and  responsible  dukes  and  counts  in  the  various 
Teutonic  provinces — Saxony,  Franconia,  Swabia,  Bavaria, 
and  Karinthia — had  been  withdrawn,  and  as  yet  these  princes 
had  not  erected  their  fiefs  into  independent  hereditary 
duchies.  Scarcely  tamed  and  civilised  themselves,  the 
frontier  districts  of  the  east  were  bordered  continuously  by 
Danes,  Wends,  Czechs,  Avars,  and  Slavonians,  ever  ready  to 
make  hostile  incursions  upon  their  territory.  Hamburg  in 
those  days  stood  as  a  frontier  town,  almost  an  outpost  in  an 
enemy's  country,  and  formed  with  Paderborn  and  Bremen 
the  high-water  mark  of  the  Frankish  expansion  on  the  north- 
eastern marches. 

In  England  national  unification  was  in  a  more  advanced 
stage  ;  Wessex  had  gradually  absorbed  the  other  constituents 
of  the  so-called  Heptarchy,  with  the  exception  of  Mercia, 
which  still  held  out  a  nominally  separate  existence.  London, 
at  this  period  a  wooden-built  town  surrounded  by  a  wall  of 
stone,  was  beginning  to  be  commercially  important. 

In  Spain  the  Christians  had  established  among  the 
mountains  of  Asturias  the  little  kingdom  of  Leon,  and  were 
commencing  the  long  struggle  which  was  eventually  to  drive 
the  Moors  out  of  the  peninsula. 

South  of  Rome  and  the  Imperial  territories  in  Italy,  the 
duchy  of  Benevento  alone  foreshadowed  the  crowd  of  princi- 
palities and  commonwealths  which  were  to  spring  into  exist- 
ence in  that  country. 

To  the  east  the  Byzantine  Empire,  pressed  by  the 
Saracens  in  its  Asiatic  possessions,  by  Bulgars  and  Slavs  on 
its  northern  boundary,  severed  from  Rome,  Ravenna,  and  the 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


Western  world  by  divergencies  of  ritual  and  dogma,  humiliated 
by  military  reverses  in  various  quarters,  still  loomed  splendid 
and  imposing  in  her  isolation,  and  the  dreaded  Greek  fire,  if 
no  longer  "the  Fire  of  old  Rome,"  helped  to  make  her 
navies  respected  in  the  Mediterranean  and  Black  Sea. 

But  if  she  still  attracted  the  attention  of  the  world, 
civilised  and  barbarian,  it  was  scarcely  by  the  exhibition  of 
any  grand  moral  qualities  ;  her  annals  were  one  long  record 
of  vicious  luxuries,  servile  flatteries,  intrigues,  disaffection, 
and  cruelties,  which  grew  like  an  unhealthy  crop  of  fungi  in 
an  atmosphere  charged  with  the  gases  of  theological  dogma- 
tism. Revolution  succeeded  revolution,  and  each  was 
followed  by  a  dreary  epilogue  of  torturings,  executions, 
blindings,  and  emasculations,  while  synods  and  councils 
gravely  discussed  the  amount  of  veneration  due  to  pictures 
of  the  Virgin,  or  the  exact  wording  of  a  litany.  In  one 
respect,  however,  the  first  Christian  State  approached  the 
New  Jerusalem  of  its  aspirations,  namely,  in  upholstery  and 
artificial  landscape  gardening,  and  its  gilded  gates  and  rooms 
of  porphyry,  its  jewelled  trees  with  mechanical  singing-birds, 
might  well  challenge  comparison  with  the  golden  streets  and 
walls  of  precious  stones  and  sea  of  glass  that  adorned  the 
Holy  City  of  the  Apocalypse. 

North  of  what  might  be  termed  the  European  mainland 
of  the  Eastern  Empire,  between  the  south  bank  of  the 
Danube  and  the  ridge  of  the  Balkans,  was  wedged  in  the 
kingdom  of  Bulgaria,  a  Turko  principality  whose  territory 
waxed  and  waned  as  its  arms  were  successful  or  the  contrary 
in  the  intermittent  warfare  it  carried  on  against  its  august 
neighbour.  Though  never  rising  to  the  position  of  a  con- 
siderable power,  and  at  times  being  reduced  to  complete 
subjection,  it  continued  to  give  trouble  to  the  Byzantine 
State  for  many  centuries,  and  the  adjoining  Zupanate  of 
Servia  was  from  time  to  time  brought  under  the  alternate 
suzerainty  of  whichever  factor  was  in  the  ascendant. 

Beyond  the  Danube  the  Magyars  had  not  as  yet  estab- 
lished themselves  in  Hungary,  in  the  lands  lately  overrun 
by  the  Avars,  and   a  considerable  section   of  that  country 


THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY 


was  absorbed  in  the  great  Moravian  kingdom,  a  Czech  state 
whose  existence  was  coterminous  with  the  ninth  century, 
and  which  also  embraced  within  its  limits  the  vassal  duchy 
of  Bohemia,  the  latter  country  having,  however,  its  separate 
dynasty  of  dukes. 

Farther  north,  Poland  had  scarcely  commenced  to  have 
a  defined  existence  in  the  polity  of  Europe.  Its  people,  if 
the  early  annals  are  not  merely  fables  borrowed  from  the 
common  stock  of  European  folk-lore,  had  elevated  to  the 
dignity  of  sovereign  duke  a  peasant  nicknamed  Piast,  from 
whom  sprang  the  family  of  that  name  who  held  the  throne 
not  less  than  600  years.  From  the  fact  that  the  Poles 
remained  independent  both  of  the  Western  Empire  and  of  the 
neighbouring  Moravian  power,  may  be  deduced  the  assump- 
tion that  they  already  possessed  some  degree  of  cohesion 
and  organisation — more  perhaps  than  distinguished  them  in 
later  stages  of  their  history. 

On  the  north  shore  of  the  Black  Sea  the  most  easterly 
possession  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  was  Kherson,  a  port  in 
the  Krim  peninsula,  and  here  the  territory  of  the  Caesars 
came  into  contact  with  the  Empire  or  Kakhanate  of  the 
Khazars,  a  Turko-Finnish  race  whose  dominions  stretched 
in  the  ninth  century  from  Hungary  to  the  shores  of  the 
Kaspian,  and  north  to  the  source  of  the  Dniepr.  They 
appear  to  have  attained  to  a  comparatively  high  degree  of 
civilisation,  and  they  kept  up  commercial  and  diplomatic 
relations  with  Byzantium  and  the  two  Kaliphates  of  Bagdad 
and  Kordova.  Their  national  religion  was  a  form  of  paganism 
(subsequently  they  embraced  Judaism),  but  in  spite  of 
differences  of  faith  and  race  one  of  their  princesses  became 
the  wife  of  the  Emperor  Constantine  V.  Their  two  principal 
cities  were  Itil,  on  the  Volga,  and  Sarkel  (the  White  City), 
on  the  Don.  Several  of  the  Turanian  and  Slavonic  tribes 
on  their  north-west  borders  acknowledged  their  authority 
and  paid  them  tribute,  but  at  the  commencement  of  the 
ninth  century  their  power  was  already  declining. 

On  their  north-east  frontier  the   Khazars  had  for  neieh- 
hours  the  Bulgarians  of  the  Volga,  an  elder  branch  of  the 


10 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


tribe  which  had  settled  in  the  Balkans.  Bolgary,  "  the 
great  City,"  was  their  capital,  and  a  trading  centre  much 
frequented  by  the  merchants  and  dealers  of  the  various  semi- 
barbaric  nations  in  their  vicinity,  as  well  as  by  the  more 
highly-civilised  Khazars  and  Persians. 

Northward  of  all,  in  the  bleak  mountain  regions  of 
Skandinavia,  on  the  roof  of  Europe  as  it  were,  dwelt  the 
Norsemen,  those  wild  and  warlike  adventurers  who  were  to 
leave  the  impress  of  their  hand  on  the  history  of  so  many 
countries.  In  those  days,  when  Iceland  and  Greenland 
were  as  yet  undiscovered,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Finland 
formed  a  stepping-stone  to  that  unknown  Arctic  Sea  which 
contemporary  imagination  peopled  with  weird  and  grimly 
monsters — for  the  North  had  its  magic  lore  as  well  as  the 
shining  East.  And  the  fierce  vikings,  fighting  and  plunder- 
ing under  their  enchanted  Raven  banner,  seemed  in  those 
credulous  times  not  far  removed  from  the  legendary  war- 
locks and  griffons  of  whom  they  were  presumed  to  be  the 
neighbours. 

As  has  been  already  noticed,  the  Khazars  were  essenti- 
ally a  trading  nation,  and  much  of  the  commerce  of  the 
farther  East  filtered  through  their  hands  into  Eastern  Europe. 
According  to  one  authority  ^  the  products  of  the  East,  after 
crossing  the  Kaspian  Sea,  were  conveyed  up  the  Volga,  and 
after  a  short  land  journey  reached  the  Baltic  by  way  of 
Lake  Ilmen  and  Lake  Ladoga.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  why 
the  shorter  and  simpler  route  along  the  Don  and  the  Black 
Sea  to  Constantinople  and  the  Mediterranean  was  not  pre- 
ferred, especially  as  the  balance  of  power,  and  consequently 
of  luxury  and  wealth,  lay  rather  in  the  south  of  Europe 
than  in  the  north.  It  was  this  trade,  however,  which  built 
up  the  importance,  possibly  caused  the  birth,  of  Novgorod, 
that  fascinating  city  which  rises  out  of  the  mists  that  shroud 
the  history  of  unchronicled  times  with  the  tantalising  name 
of  New  Town,  suggesting  the  existence  of  a  yet  older  one. 
What  was  the  exact  footing  of  Novgorod  in  the  early 
decades  of  the  ninth  century — whether  an  actual  township, 
^  Ralston,  Early  Russian  History, 


I  THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY  II 

with  governor  and  council,  giving  a  head  to  a  loose  con- 
federation of  neighbouring  Slavic  tribes,  or  whether  merely 
a  village  or  camp,  the  most  convenient  station  where  "  the 
barbarians  might  assemble  for  the  occasional  business  of  war 
or  trade "  ^  —  it  is  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  to 
determine.  Seated  on  the  banks  of  the  Volkhov  some  little 
distance  from  where  that  river  leaves  Lake  Ilmen's  northern 
shore,  and  connected  with  the  Baltic  by  convenient  water- 
ways, it  not  only  tapped  the  trade-route  already  referred  to, 
but  occupied  a  similar  favourable  position  with  regard  to 
another  important  channel  of  traffic — that  between  the  North 
and  Byzantium  by  way  of  the  Dniepr  and  Black  Sea. 
Wax,  honey,  walrus  teeth,  and  furs  went  from  the  frozen 
North  to  the  "  Tzargrad,"  as  the  Imperial  city  was  called  by 
the  Slavs,  and  in  exchange  came  silks  and  spices  and  other 
products  of  the  South.  Furs  and  skins,  of  otter,  marten, 
wolf,  and  beaver  especially,  were  in  growing  demand  in 
Europe,  where,  from  the  covering  of  savages,  they  had  been 
promoted  to  articles  of  luxury  among  the  wealthy  of 
Christendom.  With  the  land  covered  by  dense  forest,  or 
infested  by  savage  tribes,  and  the  seas  scoured  by  pirate 
fleets,  traders  preferred  to  keep  as  much  as  possible  to  the 
great  river-routes,  and  the  large,  placidly-flowing  rivers  of 
the  Russian  plain  were  peculiarly  suited  to  their  purposes. 
Thus  the  early  human  wanderers  adopted  the  same  methods 
of  travel,  and  nearly  the  same  lines  of  journey,  as  the  birds 
of  passage,  ducks,  plovers,  and  waders  use  to  this  day  in 
their  annual  migrations,  winging  their  way  along  the  coasts 
and  river-courses  from  Asia  to  Europe  and  back  again. 

Shut  up  in  their  own  constricted  world  of  forest,  lake, 
and  swamp,  the  Novgorodski  and  neighbouring  Slavs  would 
get,  by  means  of  these  waterways,  glimpses  of  other  worlds, 
distant  as  the  three  points  of  a  triangle,  and  as  varied  in 
manners,  customs,  and  products  ;  news  of  Sarkel,  Itil,  and 
the  Great  City,  Bolgary,  and  strange  countries  yet  farther 
east,  where  men  dwelt  in  tents  and  rode  on  camels  and 
hunted  the  panther,  whose   spotted    skin    was    more   richly 

^  Gibbon. 


12  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


marked  than  that  of  any  forest  lynx  ;  visits  from  mariners 
of  perhaps  their  own  nationality,  bringing  tales  of  northern 
seas,  of  ice-floes,  walruses,  sturgeons,  and  whales  ;  of  Wends 
who  preyed  on  the  vessels  driven  on  to  their  inhospitable 
shore  ;  and,  more  important  still,  of  Varangian  sea-rovers  who 
were  beginning  to  force  themselves  on  the  Finns  and  Slavs 
of  the  sea-coast ;  above  all,  tidings  from  bands  of  merchants 
of  the  City  of  Wonders  that  guarded  the  entrance  to  the 
Farther  Sea,  with  its  gates  and  palaces,  and  temples  and 
gardens  and  marts,  its  emperor  and  saints,  and  miracles  and 
ceremonials,  like  unto  nothing  they  had  experience  of 
themselves. 

It  is  just  at  this  point  that  the  history  of  the  Slavs  of 
Lake  Ilmen  and  its  neighbourhood  becomes  largely  con- 
jectural. That  they  were  brought  in  some  measure  under 
the  subjection  of  Varangian  invaders  appears  tolerably 
certain,  and,  favoured  no  doubt  by  the  natural  advantages  of 
their  position,  girt  round  with  an  intricate  network  of  forest 
and  swamp,  or,  still  better,  protected  perhaps  by  the  poverty 
of  their  communities,  they  seem  to  have  freed  themselves 
from  this  foreign  yoke,  as  the  Saxons  of  England  from  time 
to  time  drove  out  the  Danes.  It  was  in  consequence, 
probably,  of  this  common  danger  that  the  Slavs  were  drawn 
into  closer  confederation,  with  the  unfortunate  result  that 
domestic  quarrels  became  rife  among  them,  and  each  clan 
or  volost  was  at  enmity  with  its  neighbour.  "  Family 
armed  itself  against  family,  and  there  was  no  justice."  ^ 
This  sudden  ebullition  of  anarchy  rather  suggests  that  the 
Varangian  intruders  had  swept  away  previous  institutions  or 
elements  of  order,  and  left  nothing  capable  of  replacing 
them,  or  else  that  the  native  Slavs  were  unable  to  grapple 
with  the  new  problems  of  administration  on  an  extended 
scale.  Evidently,  too,  the  vigorous  Norsemen  had  obtained 
the  reputation  of  being  something  more  than  mere  un- 
disciplined robbers  and  raiders,  and  their  domination  seemed 
more  desirable  than  the  turmoil  and  dissension  attendant 
upon  a  state  of  self-government.      And   in   support  of  this 

^  Chronicle  of  Nestor, 


I  THE  DAWN  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY  13 

deduction,  almost  the  first  definite  event  recorded  in  the 
national  chronicles  is  the  resolve  of  the  people  of  Novgorod 
to  call  in  the  leaders  of  a  tribe  known  as  the  Russ  Varangians 
to  restore  order  in  their  land. 

(Controversy  has  arisen  among  Russian  historians  as  to 
the  probable  nationality  or  extraction  of  these  "  Russ " 
foreigners,  who,  like  the  Angles,  gave  their  name  to  the 
country  of  their  adoption,  and  some  writers  have  assumed 
them  to  have  been  Slavs  from  Rugen  or  the  south  coasts  of 
the  Baltic,  and  not  of  Skandinavian  origin.  Apart,  however, 
from  the  decidedly  Norse  form  of  their  leaders'  names — 
Rurik,  Sineus,  Truvor,  Oleg,  etc. — the  manner  of  their 
coming  and  their  subsequent  history  harmonises  exactly 
with  that  of  the  various  Skandinavian  offshoots  who  in- 
vaded and  established  themselves  in  Normandy,  England, 
the  Scottish  islands,  Ireland,  and  Sicily,  Under  their 
vigorous  rule  the  Slavic  settlement  around  Novgorod  ex- 
panded in  a  few  years  into  an  extensive  principality,  impos- 
ing tribute  on  and  drawing  recruits  from  the  neighbouring 
tribes,  and  carrying  the  terror  of  the  Russian  name  into  the 
Black  and  Kaspian  Seas.) 

Whether  the  "  invitation  "  was  genuine,  emanating  from 
the  desire  of  the  Ilmen  folk  to  secure  for  themselves  the 
settled  rule  of  capable  leaders,  or  whether  the  presence  of 
the  strangers  had  to  be  accepted  as  a  disagreeable  necessity, 
to  mitigate  the  humiliation  of  which  a  legendary  calling-in 
was  subsequently  invented,  must  remain  a  matter  for  con- 
jecture ;  but  with  the  incoming  of  this  new  element 
Russian  history  develops  suddenly  in  scope  and  interest/ 

^  S.  Solov'ev,  Istoriya  Rossie.  Karamzin,  Histoire  de  Russie.  Chronique 
de  Nestor.  Schiemann,  Russland,  Polen,  und  Livland.  N.  P.  Barsov, 
Otcherke  Rousskoy  istoritcheskoy  Geografie.  V.  Thomsen,  The  Relations  between 
Ancient  Russia  and  Scandinavia. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    COMING   OF    THE    VARANGIANS    AND    THE 
BUILDING    OF   KIEVIAN    RUSSIA 

Whatever  the  nature  of  the  causes  that  led  up  to  this 
irruption  of  stranger  folk,  the  fact  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
the  manner  of  their  coming  is  substantially  set  forth  in  the 
old  chronicles.  Like  ocean  demi-gods  riding  out  from  the 
sea  into  the  ken  of  mortal  men  came  three  Russ- Varangian 
brothers,  Rurik,  Sineus,  and  Truvor,  with  a  mighty  host  of 
kinsfolk  and  followers,  steering  eastward  in  their  long, 
narrow-beaked  boats  through  the  waterways  that  lead  from 
the  Finnish  Gulf  into  the  lake-land  of  the  Slavs.  Separating 
their  forces,  Rurik  established  himself  at — according  to 
some  accounts,  built — the  town  of  Ladoga,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Volkhov,  twelve  miles  from  its  entrance  into  the  Lake 
Ladoga,  thus  interposing  himself  between  Novgorod  and  the 
sea.  His  brothers  settled  at  Bielozersk  and  Izborsk  respect- 
ively, the  latter  occupying  an  important  position  near  Lake 
Peipus  and  the  Liv  border,  the  former  pushing  a  Varangian 
outpost  among  the  Finnish  tribes  to  the  east  ;  all  three, 
whether  from  accident  or  design,  choosing  the  vicinity  of  an 
open  stretch  of  water.  The  date  of  this  immigration  is 
fixed  by  the  chronicler  at  862,  which  is  regarded  as  the 
starting-point  of  the  Russian  State.  Two  years  later  Rurik, 
by  the  death  of  both  his  brothers,  was  left  in  sole  chieftaincy 
of  the  adventurers.  From  his  first  stronghold  he  soon 
shifted  his  headquarters  to  a  point  farther  up  the  Volkhov's 
course,  over  against  Novgorod,  where  he  built  himself  a 
citadel  ;  from  thence  he  eventually  made  himself  master  of 
the  town,  not  apparently  without  some  opposition  from  the 


CHAP.  II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  15 

inhabitants.  Henceforward  the  Skandinavian  chief  was  un- 
disputed prince  of  the  Slavonic  people  who  had  invited  him 
into  their  country  ;  the  neighbouring  districts  of  Rostov  and 
Polotzk  were  brought  under  his  authority,  and  Novgorod 
became  the  capital  and  centre  of  a  state  which  reached  from 
Lake  Peipus  to  the  Upper  Volga,  and  from  Ladoga  to  the 
watershed  of  the  Dvina  and  Dniepr.  In  thus  extending 
and  consolidating  his  power  and  welding  his  Skandinavian 
following  and  the  discordant  Slavic  elements  into  one 
smoothly-working  organisation,  Rurik  evinced  qualities  of 
statesmanship  equal  in  their  way  to  those  displayed  by 
William  the  Norman  in  his  conquest  and  administration  of 
England.  The  absence  of  any  national  cohesion  among  the 
Slavs,  while  facilitating  the  Norse  intrusion  and  settlement, 
increased  the  difficulty  of  binding  them  in  allegiance  to  a 
central  authority  ;  yet  within  the  space  of  a  few  crowded 
years  the  Varangian  ruler  enjoyed  an  undisputed  sway  in 
the  lands  of  his  mastery  such  as  few  princes  could  in  those 
unordered  times  rely  on.  Not  the  least  difficult  part  of 
Rurik's  task  must  have  been  the  control  of  his  own  wander- 
lusting  countrymen,  turned  loose  in  an  extensive  and  vaguely- 
defined  region,  with  rumours  of  wealth  and  plunder  and 
fighting  beckoning  them  to  the  south.  In  the  nature  of 
things  such  temptation  would  not  be  long  resisted,  especially 
as  the  Dniepr  offered  a  convenient  if  insecure  passage  to  the 
desired  lands,  and  a  short  time  after  the  first  Norse  settle- 
ment two  Skandinavian  adventurers,  named  Askold  and  Dir, 
broke  away  from  the  main  body  with  a  small  following, 
possibly  with  the  idea  of  enlisting  themselves  in  the  Varangian 
Guard  at  Byzantium.  They  did  not  immediately  pursue  their 
journey,  however,  farther  than  Kiev,  a  townstead  of  the 
Polian  Slavs,^  standing  on  a  low  bluff  above  the  west  bank 
of  the  Dniepr.  Here  they  established  themselves  as  Rurik 
had  done  at  Novgorod,  and,  reinforced  perhaps  by  roving 
bodies  of  their  countrymen,  set  up  a  second  Russian  State, 

^  Kiev  was  subsequently  invested  with  a  past  of  respectable  antiquity,  the 
consecration  of  its  site  being  attributed  to  the  Apostle  Andrew ;  it  makes  its 
entry  on  the  pages  of  the  Chronicle,  however,  simply  as  a  gorodok,  or  townlet. 


i6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


without  losing  sight,  however,  of  the  original  object  which 
had  drawn  them  southwards.  Consequently  in  the  summer 
of  865  an  expedition  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  men, 
presumably  recruited  from  both  Slavs  and  Norsemen,  em- 
barked in  their  long,  narrow  war-boats  and  sailed  for 
Byzantium,  plundering  and  burning  along  the  coast  of  the 
Black  Sea,  and  finally  riding  into  the  harbour.  The  audacity 
of  the  attack,  or  perhaps  the  warlike  reputation  of  the 
invading  host,  seems  to  have  paralysed  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city,  and  the  authorities  had  recourse  to  supernatural 
invocation  to  deliver  them  from  this  new  danger.  The 
robe  of  the  Virgin  was  removed  from  its  venerated  shrine 
in  the  Blacherne  Chapel,  escorted  in  solemn  procession  to 
the  shores  of  the  harbour,  and  dipped  in  the  water,  where- 
upon arose  a  tempest  that  drove  the  heathen  fleet  in  disorder 
out  to  sea.  That,  at  least,  is  the  account  of  the  transaction 
given  by  the  Byzantine  chroniclers. 

Whether  such  a  command  over  the  atmospherical  forces 
impressed  the  -barbarian  chiefs  with  the  desirable  qualities  of 
so  militant  a  religion,  or  whether  the  glories  of  the  Tzargrad 
as  seen  dimly  from  their  boats  had  insensibly  attracted  them 
to  the  worship  of  the  "  cold  Christ  and  tangled  trinities," 
which  was  so  much  a  part  of  the  Byzantine  life,  it  was  said 
that  Askold,  shortly  after  the  miscarriage  of  the  expedition, 
professed  the  Christian  faith.  This  much  at  least  seems 
certain,  that  the  Greek  patriarch  Photius  was  able  in  the 
year  866  to  send  to  Kiev  a  priest  with  the  title,  if  not  the 
recognition  of  Bishop,  and  that  from  that  time  there  existed 
a  small  Christian  community  in  that  town. 

The  Chronicle  of  Nestor^  almost  the  only  record  of  this 
period  of  Russian  history  in  existence,  is  silent  on  two  inter- 
esting points,  namely,  the  works  and  fightings  in  which 
Rurik  was  presumably  engaged  on  behalf  of  his  infant  state, 
and  the  attitude  of  the  Khazars  towards  the  adventurers 
who  had  filched  Kiev  and  the  adjoining  territory  from  their 
authority. 

The  only  further  item  in  the  Chronicle  relating  to  Rurik 
is  the  announcement  of  his  death  in  the  year  879,  his  child 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  17 

son  Igor  and  the  governance  of  the  country  being  entrusted 
to  Oleg,  a  blood  relation  of  the  late  Prince,  The  reign  of 
this  chieftain  was  of  great  importance  to  the  fortunes  of  the 
germinating  Russian  State,  and  if  Rurik  played  the  part  of 
a  William  the  Bastard,  Oleg  may  not  unwarrantably  be 
compared  with  Charles  the  Great.  The  rumours  which  had 
reached  the  North  of  a  Varangian  power  that  had  sprung 
up  among  the  tribes  of  the  Slavic  hinterland  had  attracted 
thither  streams  of  roving  warriors,  eager  to  share  the 
dangers  and  divide  the  fruits  of  their  kinsfolks'  enterprise. 
Thus  both  Rurik  and  the  Kievian  adventurers  had  been  able 
to  maintain  an  easily-recruited  standing  force  of  their  own 
countrymen  for  purposes  offensive  and  defensive.  The 
larger  designs  of  Oleg,  however,  required  a  larger  army,  and 
he  enlisted  under  his  captaincy  Slavs  and  Finns  in  addition 
to  his  Varangian  guards.  Having  spent  three  years  in 
gathering  and  perfecting  his  resources,  he  advanced  in  882 
into  the  basin-land  of  the  Dniepr  and  moved  upon  Smolensk, 
the  stronghold  of  the  independent  remnant  of  the  Slav  tribe 
of  Krivitches.  By  virtue,  possibly,  of  his  position  as  leader 
of  an  army  partly  drawn  from  men  of  that  tribe,  he  was 
allowed  to  take  undisputed  possession  of  the  place,  which 
was  henceforth  incorporated  in  the  Russ  dominion.  Still 
following  the  course  of  the  Dniepr,  as  Askold  and  Dir  had 
followed  it  before  him,  he  entered  the  country  of  the 
Sieverskie  Slavs  and  made  himself  master  of  their  head 
town,  Lubetch. 

By  these  successive  steps  Oleg  had  brought  himself 
nigh  upon  Kiev,  the  headquarters  of  the  rival  principality, 
which  was  possibly  the  object  he  had  had  in  view  from  the 
commencement  of  his  southward  march.  For  to  the  rising 
Russ-Slavonic  State  Kiev  was  at  once  a  menace  and  an 
injury  ;  not  only  did  it  offer  an  alternative  attraction  to  the 
Norsemen  pouring  into  the  country,  the  natural  reinforce- 
ments of  Oleg's  following,  but  its  separate  existence  cut 
short  the  expansion  of  the  northern  territor}'',  and,  above  all, 
hindered  free  intercourse  with  Byzantium  and  the  south. 
To  the   sea-rovers,  reared   among  the    rude  and    penurious 

C 


i8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


lands  that  lay  dark  and  uncivilised  between  the  Baltic  and 
the  Arctic  Sea,  Byzantium  was  a  dazzling  and  irresistible 
attraction  ;  rich  beyond  their  comprehension  of  riches, 
luxurious  to  a  degree  unknown  to  them,  renowned  for  every- 
thing except  renown,  she  seemed  a  golden  harvest  ripe  for 
the  steel  of  the  valorous  and  enterprising.  Between  this 
desired  land  and  the  Novgorodian  principality  the  territory 
of  Askold  presented  a  vexatious  obstacle,  and  it  was  in- 
evitable that  the  sagacity  of  Oleg  should  aim  at  its  destruc- 
tion. At  the  same  time  it  was  understandable  that  he 
should  seek  to  avoid  an  armed  conflict  with  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  the  Varangians  of  Kiev,  and  to  effect  his 
purpose  by  stratagem  rather  than  by  force.  To  this  end  he 
approached  the  town,  laid  an  ambuscade  on  the  banks  of 
the  Dniepr,  and  in  the  guise  of  a  trader  travelling  from 
Novgorod  to  Byzantium,  sought  speech  with  the  Kievian 
rulers.  Askold  and  Dir  came  out  unwittingly  to  see  this 
wayfarer,  and  found  no  man  of  wares  and  whining  suppli- 
ance ;  found  rather  one  whose  face  they  well  knew,  and 
with  him  a  small  lad  whose  significance  was  swiftly  made 
plain  to  them.  "  You  are  not  of  the  blood  of  princes," 
cried  a  voice  of  triumph  and  boding  in  their  ears,  "  but  here 
behold  the  son  of  Rurik."  And  therewith  rushed  out  the 
hidden  ones  and  slew  the  unsuspecting  chieftains.  And  in 
guerdon  of  this  stroke  Oleg  was  accepted  as  sovereign  by 
the  people  of  Kiev,  the  Russian  State  was  solidified,  and 
the   supremacy    of    Rurik's     dynasty    received    a     valuable 


recognition. 


The  town  of  Kiev,  advantageously  situated  at  a  pleasant 
elevation  above  the  west  bank  of  the  Dniepr,  and  command- 
ing the  waterway  to  the  coveted  south,  compared  favourably 
with  Novgorod,  built  among  the  flat  marshes  that  bordered 
Lake  Ilmen  and  surrounded  by  the  Finn-gripped  coasts  of 
Ladoga.  The  advantages  of  the  former  were  not  lost  upon 
its  conqueror,  who  saluted  it  with  the  title  of  "  mother  of  all 
Russian  cities  "  (so  the  Chronicles),  and  thenceforth  it  became 
the  capital  of  the  country.  It  was  now  necessary  to  secure 
the   connection    between    the   newly-won    territory   and    the 


11  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  19 

districts  lying  to  the  north.  West  and  north  of  Kiev  dwelt 
the  Drevlians,  a  fierce  and  formidable  Slavic  tribe,  whose 
country  was  fortified  by  natural  defences  of  forest  and 
marsh.  Against  them  Oleg  turned  his  arms,  and  once  more 
victory  went  with  him  ;  the  Drevlians,  while  retaining  their 
own  chieftain,  were  reduced  to  the  standing  of  vassals,  and 
an  annual  tribute  of  marten  and  sable  skins  was  imposed 
upon  them.  Within  the  next  two  years  the  Russian  ruler 
completed  the  subjugation  of  the  Sieverskie  and  enthralled 
the  remaining  lands  of  the  Krivitches,  both  of  which  tribes 
had  hitherto  owned  allegiance  to  the  Khazars.  The  grow- 
ing Russian  dominions  were  now  put  under  a  system  of 
taxation,  the  sums  levied  being  devoted  in  the  first  place  to 
the  payment  of  the  Varangians  in  the  Prince's  service.  The 
contribution  of  Novgorod  was  assessed  at  the  yearly  value 
of  300  grivnas,  a  token  of  its  substantial  footing  at  this 
particular  period. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Ougres  or  Magyars,  the 
ancestors  of  the  modern  Hungarians,  squeezed  out  of  their 
Asiatic  home  by  the  pressure  of  the  Petchenigs,  burst 
through  the  Khazar  and  Kievian  territories  and  settled 
themselves  in  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  and  finally  in 
Hungary.  Their  passage  through  the  Dniepr  basin-land 
would  scarcely  have  been  undisputed,  and  the  Magyar 
Chronicles  speak  of  a  victory  over  Oleg ;  the  Russian 
chronicler  is  silent  on  the  subject.  This  scurrying  horde 
of  nomad  barbarians,  unlike  the  Avars  who  preceded  them, 
or  the  Petchenigs  and  Kumans  who  followed  in  their  wake, 
crystallised  in  a  marvellously  short  space  of  time  into  a 
civilised  European  State,  and  became  an  important  neighbour 
of  the  Russian  principality. 

In  903  the  young  Igor  was  mated  to  a  Varangian 
maiden  named  Olga,  who,  by  one  account,  was  born  of 
humble  parents  in  the  town  of  Pskov  and  attracted  the 
Prince  by  her  beauty.  Other  accounts  make  her,  with  more 
probability,  a  near  relative  of  the  Regent,  of  whose  strength 
of  character  she  seems  to  have  inherited  a  share. 

In  907  Oleg  was  in  a  position  to  put  into  practice  a 


20 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


project  which  had  probably  never  been  lost  sight  of,  the 
invasion,  namely,  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  including  an 
attack  on  Constantinople  itself,  a  project  dear  to  the  Russian 
mind  in  the  tenth  century  as  well  as  in  later  times. 
His  footing  differed  essentially  from  that  of  Askold  and  Dir 
in  their  attempt  at  a  like  undertaking.  No  longer  the 
leader  of  a  mere  troop  of  adventurers,  Oleg  swayed  an  army 
inspired  by  a  long  series  of  successes  and  confident  in  the 
sanction  and  prestige  of  the  princely  authority.  Slavs, 
Finns,  and  Varangians  were  bonded  together  in  a  repre- 
sentative Russian  army,  trained,  disciplined,  and,  above  all, 
reliant  on  the  ability  of  their  captain.  In  their  long,  light 
barques  they  went  down  the  Dniepr,  hauling  their  craft 
overland  where  the  rapids  rendered  navigation  impossible, 
and  thence  emerged  into  the  Black  Sea  ;  the  boats  were 
escorted  along  the  river-banks  by  a  large  body  of  horsemen, 
but  the  Chronicle  does  not  tell  whether  this  branch  of  the 
expedition  made  its  way  through  Bessarabia  and  Bulgaria 
into  the  Imperial  territory,  and  probably  it  only  served  to 
guard  the  main  body  from  the  attacks  of  hostile  tribes  in 
the  steppe  region.  Arrived  in  the  waters  of  the  Bosphorus 
the  invaders  landed  and  ravaged  the  country  in  the  vicinity 
of  Constantinople,  burning,  plundering,  and  slaughtering 
without  hindrance  from  the  Greek  forces,  Leo  VI.,  "  the 
Philosopher,"  shut  himself  up  in  his  capital  and  confined  his 
measures  of  defence  to  placing  a  chain  across  the  entrance 
of  the  harbour.  So  much  had  the  Eastern  Empire  become 
centralised  in  the  city  of  Constantinople,  that  it  was  ap- 
parently a  matter  of  small  concern  if  the  very  suburbs 
were  laid  waste,  or  else  Leo  was  waiting  with  philosophic 
patience  for  a  supernatural  intervention.  The  Virgin,  how- 
ever, not  obliging  with  another  tornado,  the  invaders  turned 
their  impious  arms  against  the  city  itself.  According  to 
popular  tradition,  Oleg  dragged  his  boats  ashore,  mounted 
them  on  wheels,  spread  sail,  and  floated  across  dry  land 
towards  the  city  walls.  Possibly  he  attempted  the  exploit, 
successfully  carried  out  some  five  hundred  years  later  by 
Sultan  Mahomet  II..  of  hauling  his  vessels  overland  into  the 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  21 

waters  of  the  harbour,  a  labour  which  would  be  facilitated 
by  the  lightness  and  toughness  of  the  Russian  craft.  At 
any  rate  the  effect  of  the  demonstration  was  salutary  ;  the 
Emperor,  alarmed  at  such  a  display  of  energy,  determined 
to  come  to  terms  with  his  barbarous  enemy, — first,  however, 
the  Russian  chronicler  alleges,  trying  the  experiment  of  an 
offering  of  poisoned  meats  and  fruits  to  Oleg  and  his  war- 
men.^  A  study  of  the  history  of  Byzantium  fully  supports 
the  likelihood  of  such  a  stratagem,  which,  had  it  succeeded, 
would  have  been  hailed  as  a  miraculous  epidemic,  sweeping 
the  heathen  away  from  the  threatened  city.  The  gift  was 
prudently  declined,  and  the  more  prosaic  and  expensive 
method  of  buying  off  the  invaders  had  to  be  resorted  to. 
The  treaty  which  was  concluded  between  the  Greeks  and 
the  Russians  shows  that  the  latter  were  fully  alive  to  the 
advantages  accruing  from  a  free  commercial  intercourse  with 
Constantinople.  Besides  the  levy  of  a  fixed  sum  for  every 
man  in  the  invading  fleet,  contributions  were  exacted  for 
Kiev  and  other  towns  under  the  Russian  sway,  which 
arrangement  gave  to  all  a  share  in  the  national  victory. 
More  solidly  advantageous,  under  certain  specified  conditions, 
Russian  merchants  were  to  be  permitted  right  of  free  com- 
merce at  Constantinople. 

The  Christian  Emperor  and  the  pagan  Prince  called 
upon  their  respective  deities  to  witness  the  solemn  pact 
between  them,  and  Oleg,  having  hung  his  shield  in  triumph 
on  the  gate  of  the  Tzargrad,  returned  to  Kiev  loaded  with 
presents  and  covered  with  the  glory  of  a  successful  campaign. 
Five  years  later  the  great  Varangian,  loved  and  honoured 
by  his  people,  feared  and  respected  by  his  foes,  finished  his 
long  reign  of  three-and-thirty  years.  Tradition  has  it  that 
the  soothsayers  foretold  that  his  death  should  be  caused  by 
his  favourite  horse,  whereupon  he  had  it  led  away  and  never 
rode  it  more.  Years  after,  learning  that  it  was  dead,  he  went 
to  see  the  skeleton,  and  placing  his  foot  upon  the  skull, 
taunted  the  warlocks  with  their  miscarried  prophecy,  where- 
upon a  snake  wriggled  out  and  inflicted  a  bite,  of  which  he 

^   Chronicle  of  Nestor. 


22  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


died.     The  same  legend  crops  up  in  the  folk-lore  of  many 

lands. 

In  venturing  to  compare  Oleg  with  Charles  the  Great, 
whose  life-work  lay  in  somewhat  similar  lines,  it  may  be 
noted  of  the  former  that  his  results  were  obtained  with 
comparatively  little  bloodshed,  and  that  he  strengthened  the 
position  of  the  dynasty  while  forming  the  empire  over  which 
it  was  to  rule.  The  fairest  and  most  fertile  districts  of 
Russia  were  added  to  the  principality  during  his  regency, 
and,  more  important  still,  the  peoples  whom  he  subjugated 
were  permanently  welded  into  the  confederation.  The  Slavs 
of  Kiev  in  the  later  years  of  Oleg  were  essentially  the 
"  men  "  of  the  Russian  State,  a  rapidity  of  assimilation  which 
was  scarcely  observable  in  the  case  of  the  Bavarians  and 
Frisians  of  the  Frankish  Empire,  or  the  Saxons  of  Norman 
England.  In  the  matter  of  religion,  too,  the  heathen  Prince 
contrasts  favourably  with  the  great  Christian  Emperor,  and 
though  the  worshipper  of  the  Christ  who  "  came  not  to  send 
peace  but  a  sword  "  into  the  world  may  have  butchered  his 
nonconforming  subjects  with  the  honestest  conviction  of 
well-doing,  it  is  pleasanter  to  read  of  the  toleration  which 
the  follower  of  Peroun  extended  to  the  Christian  communities 
within  his  realm. 
912  Igor,  who  after  a  long  minority  succeeded  to  a  more 
extensive  and  firmly  established  principality  than  his  father 
had  bequeathed  him,  was  occupied  at  the  commencement  of 
his  reign  in  suppressing  a  revolt  of  the  Drevlians  and 
UHtches,  the  least  well  affected  of  the  Slav  tribes  subject  to 
his  rule,  who  had  refused  payment  of  the  yearly  tribute. 
The  gathering-in  of  this  impost  was  entrusted  to  Svenald, 
a  Varangian  to  whom  Igor  deputed  the  internal  management 
of  the  realm  ;  after  a  three-years'  struggle  the  rebels  were 
mastered  and  the  amount  of  their  tribute  increased.  A  new 
source  of  uneasiness  arose  at  this  juncture  from  the  arrival 
in  South  Russia  of  the  Petchenigs,  a  Finn-Turko  tribe  who 
migrated  from  the  plains  of  Asia  in  the  wake  of  the  Magyars 
and  settled  in  the  steppe-land  on  either  side  of  the  Dniepr. 
The  city  of  Kiev  enjoyed  an  immunity  from   attack  from 


II 


THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  23 


their  horde  by  reason  of  the  strong  force  at  hand  for  its 
defence,  and  the  Russians,  moreover,  were  interested  in 
keeping  up  a  good  understanding  with  neighbours  who 
commanded  the  waterway  to  the  south.  But  to  the  newly- 
erected  Hungarian  State  the  new-comers  were  a  veritable 
thorn  in  the  flesh,  and  Moldavia  became  a  debatable  ground 
between  the  two  peoples.  It  was  an  act  of  weakness  on  the 
part  of  Igor  and  his  advisers,  with  a  large  fighting  force  at 
their  disposal,  to  have  permitted  the  establishment  of  a 
dangerous  enemy  or  doubtful  ally  in  such  undesirable  near- 
ness to  their  capital,  and  in  a  position  which  threatened  their 
principal  trade-route.  This  policy  of  peace  was  all  the 
more  ill-judged  as  the  restless  spirit  of  the  Varangian  war- 
men  required  some  outlet  for  its  employment,  and  might 
fittingly  have  been  turned  to  the  advantage  of  the  State. 
Their  lust  for  adventure  and  pillage  found  vent  instead  in 
independent  raids,  and  in  the  year  914  a  fleet  of  700 
Russian  ships  appeared,  somewhat  like  the  proverbial  fly 
in  amber,  on  the  waters  of  the  Kaspian,  where  they  plundered 
along  the  Persian  coast.^  Another  troop  penetrated  into 
Italy  in  the  service  of  the  Byzantine  Emperor. 

If  the  saying,  "  Happy  is  the  country  that  has  no  history  " 
will  hold  good  in  every  case,  the  bulk  of  Igor's  reign  must 
have  been  a  period  of  prosperity,  for  nothing  further  is  heard 
of  Russia  or  its  Prince  till  the  year  941,  when,  like  a  recurring 
decimal,  an  expedition  against  Constantinople  is  recorded 
by  both  Greek  and  Russian  annalists.  Whether  difficulties 
had  arisen  in  the  trading  relations  of  the  two  countries, 
whether  the  rupture  was  forced  by  a  war  party  among  the 
Varangians,  or  whether  Igor  was  fired  with  the  ambition,  to 
which  old  men  are  at  times  victims,  of  doing  something 
which  should  shed  lustre  on  his  declining  years — he  was  now 
not  far  off  seventy — the  Chronicles  do  not  indicate,  and 
"  what  was  it  they  fought  about  "  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  details 
of  the  fighting.  With  a  fleet  variously  written  down  at  from 
1000  to  10,000  boats,  Igor  descended  by  the  old  waterway 
into  the  Black   Sea   and   ravaged   and   plundered  along  the 

1  Schiemann,  Russland,  Polen,  und  Livland. 


24 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


coasts  of  the  Bosphorus.  The  Imperial  fleet  was  absent  on 
service  against  the  Saracens,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
vessels  scarcely  deemed  fit  for  action,  which  were  lying  in 
the  harbour.  It  occurred  to  the  Greek  Emperor  Romanes, 
after  many  sleepless  nights,  to  arm  these  despised  ships  and 
galleys  with  the  redoubtable  Greek  fire  and  steer  them 
against  the  hostile  flotilla,  a  desperate  expedient  which  was 
crowned  with  success ;  the  mysterious  flames,  which  the 
water  itself  was  unable  to  quench,  not  only  enwrapped  the 
light  barques  of  the  Russians  but  demoralised  their  crews, 
and  a  hopeless  rout  ensued.  The  Greeks  were,  however, 
unable  to  follow  up  their  advantage,  and  Igor  rallied  his  men 
for  a  descent  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  where  he  consoled 
himself  by  pillaging  the  surrounding  country.  Here  he  was 
at  length  opposed  by  an  army  under  the  command  of  the 
patrician  Bardas  and  forced  to  make  his  way  to  Thrace, 
where  another  reverse  awaited  him.  With  the  remains  of 
his  army  the  baffled  prince  made  his  way  back  to  Kiev, 
leaving  many  of  his  hapless  followers  in  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks.  Luitprand,  Bishop  of  Cremona,  present  at  Constan- 
tinople on  an  embassy,  saw  numbers  of  them  put  to  death  by 
torture.  The  Northman  was  not,  however,  at  the  end  of  his 
resources  ;  with  an  energy  surprising  for  his  years,  he  set  to 
work  to  gather  an  army  which  should  turn  the  scale  of 
victory  against  the  Byzantians,  their  magical  fire  and  intimacy 
with  the  supernatural  notwithstanding.  To  this  end  he  sent 
his  henchmen  into  the  bays  and  fjords  of  the  Baltic  to  call 
in  the  sea-rovers  to  battle  and  plunder  under  his  flag.  The 
invitation  they  were  not  loth  to  accept,  but  many  of  them 
showed  a  disinclination  to  bind  themselves  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Russian  Prince,  and  rushed  instead,  like  a  brood 
of  ducklings  breaking  away  from  their  foster-mother,  into  the 
charmed  waters  of  the  Kaspian,  where  they  carried  on  an 
exuberant  marauding  expedition.  A  sufificient  number,  how- 
ever, followed  Igor  in  his  second  campaign  against  the 
Tzargrad  to  swell  his  ranks  to  a  formidable  host,  and  word 
was  sent  to  the  Greek  capital,  from  Bulgarian  and  Greek 
sources,  that  the  waters  of  the  Black  Sea  were  covered  with 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  25 


the  vessels  of  a  Russian  fleet.  The  Emperor  did  not  hesitate 
what  course  to  adopt,  but  hastily  despatched  an  embassy  to 
meet  the  invader  with  offers  to  pay  the  tribute  exacted  by 
Oleg  and  renew  the  treaty  between  the  two  countries.  The 
Imperial  messengers  fell  in  with  Igor  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Danube,  and  their  proposals  were  agreed  to  after  a  consulta- 
tion between  the  Prince  and  his  dyoujJiiniki}  who  in  fact 
gained  without  further  struggle  as  much  as  they  could  have 
hoped  for  in  the  event  of  a  victory.  Igor  returned  to  Kiev 
as  a  conqueror,  loaded  with  presents  from  Romanos,  who 
sent  thither  in  the  following  year  his  ambassadors  with  a 
text  of  the  treaty.  This  was  sworn  to  by  the  Prince  and 
his  captains  before  the  idol  of  Peroun,  except  in  the  case  of 
the  Christian  minority,  who  performed  their  oath  at  the  altar 
of  S.  Elias.  The  fact  of  a  Christian  cathedral — a  designa- 
tion probably  more  ambitious  than  the  building  —  being 
established  at  Kiev  at  this  period  speaks  much  for  the 
toleration  shown  to  the  foreign  religion  by  the  followers  of 
the  national  god. 

Igor  did  not  long  enjoy  the  fruits  of  this  success. 
Baulked  of  their  expected  campaign,  his  men  of  war  chafed 
at  the  inaction  of  the  old  man's  court,  and  envied  the  com- 
parative advantages  thrown  in  the  way  of  Svenald's  body- 
guards. It  was  a  custom  of  the  Russian  rulers  to  spend  one- 
half  of  the  year,  from  November  till  April,  in  visiting  the 
scattered  districts  of  their  dominion,  for  the  double  purpose 
of  keeping  in  touch  with  their  widely-sundered  subjects  and 
gathering  in  the  revenue.  This  winter  harvesting  of  the 
tribute  (which  Igor  in  his  declining  years  left  in  the  hands 
of  his  deputed  steward)  is  interesting  as  being  probably  the 
earliest  stage  of  Russian  home  trade.  For  the  most  part  the 
payment  in  kind  consisted  of  furs  and  skins,  the  bulk  of 
which  went  from  the  various  places  of  collection  in  boat-loads 
down  to  Kiev,  from  thence  eventually  making  its  way  to  the 
sea  marts  of  Southern  Europe.  The  forest  country  of  the 
Drevlians,  rich  in  its  yield  of  thick-coated  sables  and  yellow- 
chested   martens,  lay  in  convenient  neighbourhood   to   Kiev, 

^  Members  of  war  council. 


26  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


and  thither  the  Prince's  men  clamoured  to  be  led  for  the 
purpose  of  gleaning  an  increased  tribute.  In  a  moment  of 
fatal  weakness  Igor  consented,  and  in  the  autumn  of  945 
set  out  to  close  his  reign  as  he  had  begun  it,  in  a  quarrel 
with  "  the  tree  people  "  over  the  matter  of  their  taxing.  The 
armed    host   which   accompanied    the    Prince   overawed    the  ,j 

resentment  bred  by  this  stretching  of  the  sovereign   claims,  fl 

but  the  apparent  ease  with  which  the  imposts  were  gathered  " 

in  tempted  Igor  to  linger  behind  his  returning  main-guard 
for  the  purpose  of  exacting  a  further  levy.  The  exasperated 
Drevlians,  hearkening  to  the  counsel  of  their  chieftain,  Mai, 
"  to  rise  and  slay  the  wolf  who  was  bent  on  devouring  their 
whole  flock,"  turned  suddenly  upon  the  fate-blind  Igor  in  the 
midst  of  his  importunings  and  put  him  to  a  hideous  death. 
Two  young  trees  were  bent  towards  each  other  nearly  to  the 
ground,  and  to  them  the  unfortunate  tyrant  was  bound  ;  then 
the  trees  were  allowed  to  spring  back  to  their  normal  posi- 
tion.     Thus  did  the  tree  people  avenge  their  wrongs. 

The  safest  standard  by  which  to  judge  a  reign  of  the 
inward  history  of  which  so  little  can  be  known  is  the  measure 
of  stability  which  it  leaves  behind  it.  The  widow  of  the 
murdered  Prince  and  his  young  heir  Sviatoslav  came  peace- 
ably into  the  vacant  throneship,  and  it  is  no  small  tribute  to 
the  statecraft  of  Rurik  and  his  successors  that  the  grandson 
of  the  Varangian  stranger  and  adventurer  should  inherit,  at 
a  tender  age  and  under  the  guardianship  of  a  woman,  the 
Russian  principality  without  opposition  and  without  question. 

The  young  Kniaz,^  notwithstanding  the  Slavonic  name 
which  he  was  the  first  of  his  house  to  bear,  was  brought  up 
mainly  among  Skandinavian  influences,  his  person  and  the 
domestic  management  of  the  State  being  entrusted  to  Varan- 
gian hands.  His  mother  Olga  bore  no  small  share  of  the 
administration,  and  the  vigour  and  energy  of  her  doings  were 
well  worthy  of  the  heroic  age  of  early  Russia.  The  first 
undertaking  which  was  called  for,  alike  by  political  necessity 
and  the  promptings  of  revenge,  was  the  chastisement  of  her 
husband's  murderers.       With   the  idea  possibly  of  averting 

1  Kniazy  Prince  ;  velikU-Kniaz,  Grand  Prince. 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  27 

the  Storm  by  a  bold  stroke  of  diplomacy,  the  latter  had  sent 
messengers  to  the  widowed  princess  suggesting  a  connubial 
alliance  with  the  implicated  chieftain  Mai,  a  proposal  which 
was  met  with  a  feigned  acceptance.  Having  lulled  the 
apprehensions  of  the  Drevlians,  Olga  marched  into  their 
country  with  a  large  following  and  turned  the  projected 
festivities  into  a  massacre,  after  which  she  besieged  the  town 
of  Korosten,^  the  scene  of  Igor's  death,  and  the  last  refuge 
of  the  disconcerted  rebels.  The  Chronicle  of  the  monk  of 
Kiev  gives  a  quaint,  old-world  account  of  the  manner  of  the 
taking  of  Korosten.  All  the  summer  the  inhabitants  defended 
themselves  stubbornly,  and  the  princess  at  last  agreed  to 
conclude  a  peace  on  receipt  of  a  tribute,  which  was  to  consist 
of  a  live  pigeon  and  three  live  sparrows  from  each  homestead. 
How  they  caught  the  sparrows  is  left  to  the  imagination,  but 
the  tribute  was  gladly  paid.  At  the  approach  of  evening 
Olga  caused  the  birds  to  be  set  free,  each  with  a  lighted 
brand  fastened  to  its  tail,  whereupon  their  homing  instincts 
took  them  back  to  their  dwellings  in  the  thatched  roofs  and 
barns  of  Korosten,  with  the  result  that  the  town  was  soon  in 
a  blaze,  and  the  inhabitants  fell  easy  victims  to  the  swords 
of  the  besiegers.  Thus  was  avenged  the  death  of  Igor,  the 
son  of  Rurik. 

Shortly  after  this  exploit  Olga  left  Kiev  and  went  into 
the  northern  parts  of  her  son's  realm,  fixing  her  court  for 
some  years  at  Novgorod  and  Pskov,  and  raising  the 
prosperity  of  those  townships  by  keeping  up  a  connection 
with  the  Skandinavian  lands.  Later  she  turned  her  thoughts 
towards  the  south,  not  with  warlike  projects,  as  her  fore- 
runners had  done,  but  with  peaceful  intent.  Accompanied 
by  a  suitable  train  she  journeyed,  in  the  year  957,  to 
Constantinople,  where  she  was  received  and  entertained  with 
due  splendour  by  the  Emperor  Constantine-born-in-the- 
Purple  and  the  Patriarch  Theophylact.  Here,  in  the 
metropolis  of  the  Christian  religion,  surrounded  by  all  the 
splendours  of  ritual  of  which  the  Greeks  were  masters,  this 
surprising  woman   adopted  the  prevalent   faith,  received   at 

1  Now  Iskorosk,  on  the  Usha. 


28  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


the  hands  of  her  Imperial  host  and  sponsor  the  baptismal 
name  of  Helen,  and  became  "  the  first  Russian  who  mounted 
to  the  heavenly  kingdom  " — a  rather  disparaging  reflection 
on  the  labours  of  the  early  Church  at  Kiev. 

Loaded  with  presents  from  the  Imperial   treasury,  Olga 
returned   to  her  son,  whom   she  strove  fruitlessly  to  detach 
from    the   gods  of  his    fathers   to  the  worship  of  the  new 
deities  she  had  brought  from  Constantinople.      The  Russian 
mind  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  mystic  cult  of  the  Greek  or 
Latin   Church,  and  the  conversion  of   the   Prince's   mother 
made  little  impression  on  either  boyarins  or  people.      In  the 
year  964   Sviatoslav  definitely  assumed  the  government  of 
the  country,  and  struck  the  key-note  of  his  reign  by  extend- 
ing his  sway  over  the  Viatitchcs,  the  last  Slavonic  tribe  who 
paid  tribute  to  the  Khazars.      This  was  only  preliminary  to 
an   attack  on   that  peo{)le  in  their  own  country.     The  fate 
of  their  once  powerful  empire  was  decided   in  one  battle  ; 
the  arms  of  the  young   Kniaz  were  victorious  ;    Sarkel,  the 
White  City,  fell   into  his  hands,  the  outlying  i^ssessions  of 
the     Khazars,    east     and    south,    were     subdued,    and    the 
kakhanate  was   reduced   to  a  shadow  of  its   former   glory. 
It  would  have  been   a  wiser  policy  to  have  left  untouched, 
for  the  time  being,  the   integrity  of  a   State  which   was   no 
lon<Ter  formidable,  and  which   interposed   a  civilised   barrier 
between  the  Russian  lands  and  the  barbarian  hordes  of  the 
East,  and   to  have  pursued    instead   a  war  of  extermination 
against  the  Petchcnigs.     Sviatoslav  was  himself  to  experience 
the  disastrous  results  of  this  mistake. 
968         In   the  following  year  the  centre  of  interest  shifts  from 
the    south-east    to    the    south-west.      The    Greek    Emperor, 
Nicephorus   Phocas,  irritated   against   his  vassal    Peter,  King 
or    Tzar   of   Bulgaria,   in   that    he   had   not  exerted   himself 
against     the     Magyars,     who    were    raiding     the     Imperial 
dominions,    turned     for    help,    according    to    the    approved 
Byzantine  policy,  to  another  neighbour,  and  commissioned 
Sviatoslav    to    march    against    Bulgaria.      .A    large    sum    of 
Greek   gold   was  conveyed   to   Kiev  by  an  ambassador  from 
the  Plmperor,  and   in   return   the  Russian  Prince  set  out  for 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  29 

the  Danube  with  a  following  of  60,000  men.  The  onset  of 
the  invaders  was  irresistible,  and  the  Bulgarians  scattered 
and  fled,  leaving  their  capital,  Pereyaslavetz,  and  Dristr,  a 
strongly  fortified  place  on  the  Danube,  in  the  hands  of  the 
conqueror.  To  complete  the  good  fortune  of  Sviatoslav  the 
Tzar  Peter  died  at  this  critical  moment,  and  the  Russian 
Prince  settled  down  in  his  newly-acquired  city,  undisputed 
master  of  Bulgaria.  East  and  west  his  arms  had  been 
successful,  but  in  the  very  heart  of  his  realm  he  had  left  a 
dread  and  watchful  enemy,  who  would  not  fail  to  take 
advantage  of  his  absence.  While  his  army  was  at  quarters 
in  the  head  city  of  the  Bulgarians,  his  own  capital  was  being 
besieged  and  closely  pressed  by  the  Petchenigs,  that  "  greedy 
people,  devouring  the  bodies  of  men,  corrupt  and  impure, 
bloody  and  cruel  beasts,"  as  the  monk  of  Edessa  portrays 
them  ;  in  which  certificate  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  were  over- 
described.  The  folk  in  the  beleaguered  city,  among  the 
rest  the  aged  Olga  and  the  young  sons  of  Sviatoslav,  were 
in  straits  from  want  of  food,  and  must  have  succumbed  if 
one  of  their  number  had  not  made  his  way  by  means  of  a 
feint  through  the  enemy's  camp,  and  carried  news  of  their 
desperate  condition  to  a  boyarin  named  Prititch  who  was 
luckily  at  hand  with  a  small  force.  On  his  approach  the 
Petchenigs  drew  off,  thinking  that  the  Prince  himself  had 
returned  with  his  army,  and  Kiev  was  relieved  from  the 
straits  of  famine.  Sviatoslav  meanwhile  had  learned  of  the 
danger  which  threatened  his  realm  and  household  and 
hastened  back  from  I^ulgaria,  Even  this  narrowly  staved- 
off  disaster  did  not  open  his  eyes  to  the  menace  which  these 
undesirable  neighbours  ever  held  over  him  and  his,  and  he 
contented  himself  with  inflicting  a  severe  defeat  on  them 
and  concluding  a  worthless  peace.  Possibly  he  found  it 
hard  to  arouse  among  his  followers  any  enthusiasm  for  a 
campaign  against  an  enemy  who  had  no  wealthy  cities  to 
plunder  or  riches  of  any  kind  available  for  spoil.  In  any 
case  he  was  bitten  with  the  desire,  to  which  rulers  of  Russia 
seem  to  have  been  periodically  subject,  of  shifting  the  seat 
of  his  government   to   a  fresh   capital.      Before  his  mother 


30  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


and  his  boyarins  he  declared  his  project  of  fixing  his  seat  at 
Pereyaslavetz  in  preference  to  Kiev,  and  enumerated  the 
advantages  of  the  former.  From  the  Greeks  came  gold, 
fabrics,  wine,  and  fruits  ;  from  Bohemia  and  Hungary  horses 
and  silver  ;  from  Russia  furs,  wax,  honey,  and  slaves.  To 
Olga,  with  the  hand  of  death  already  on  her,  the  question 
was  not  one  of  great  moment,  and  four  days  later  she  had 
made  her  last  journey  to  a  vault  in  the  cathedral  of  Kiev. 
A  certain  compassion  is  excited  by  the  contemplation  of 
the  aged  queen,  dying  lonely  in  a  faith  that  her  husband 
had  never  known,  which  her  son  had  not  accepted,  just  as 
the  realm  over  which  she  had  ruled  so  actively  was  to  be 
enlarged  and  its  political  centre  shifted.  Her  death  removed 
the  last  obstacle  to  Sviatoslav's  design,  the  last  that  is  to 
say  with  which  he  reckoned.  Before  departing  for  Bulgaria 
the  Prince  set  his  sons,  who  could  not  at  this  date  (970) 
have  been  of  a  very  mature  age,  in  responsible  positions, 
Yaropalk,  the  elder,  becoming  governor  of  Kiev,  and  Oleg 
prince  of  the  Drevlians.  The  Novgorodskie,  who  had  been 
left  for  many  years  to  the  hireling  care  of  Sviatoslav's 
deputies,  demanded  a  son  of  the  princely  house  as  ruler, 
threatening  in  case  of  refusal  to  choose  one  from  elsewhere 
for  themselves  ;  here  the  stormy  spirit  of  Velikie  Novgorod 
shows  itself  for  the  first  time.  Happily  the  supply  of  sons 
was  equal  to  the  demand  ;  by  one  of  Olga's  maidens  named 
Malousha  the  Prince  had  become  father  of  Vladimir,  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  Russia,  and 
to  him,  under  the  guardianship  of  his  mother's  brother 
Drobuinya,  was  confided  the  government  of  the  northern 
town.  Having  thus  arranged  for  the  present  security  and 
future  confusion  of  his  territories  by  instituting  the  system 
of  separate  appanages,  Sviatoslav  set  out  for  his  new  possession 
beyond  the  Danube.  "  A  prince  should,  if  possible,  live  in 
the  country  he  has  conquered,"  wrote  the  political  codist  of 
mediaeval  Italy,  and  the  Russian  monarch  found  that  even 
his  brief  absence  had  lost  him  much  of  the  fruits  of  his 
victory.  The  Bulgarians  mustered  to  oppose  his  march 
with  a  large  force,  and   a  desperate  battle  ensued,  in  which 


II  THE  COMING  OF  THE   VARANGIANS  31 

defeat  was  only  staved  off  from  the  invaders  by  the  heroic 
exertions  of  their  leader.  Pereyaslavetz  was  retaken,  and 
Sviatoslav  again  became  master  of  the  Balkan  land,  per- 
mitting, however,  Boris,  son  of  the  late  Tzar,  to  keep  the 
gold  crown,  frontlet,  and  red  buskins  which  were  the 
Bulgarian  marks  of  royalty.  The  Greeks  now  repented 
their  folly  in  having  established  in  their  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood, within  a  few  short  marches  of  Constantinople,  a 
prince  who  was  far  more  dangerous  to  them  than  ever  the 
Bulgarian  Tzars  had  been.  John  Zimisces,  who  had 
succeeded  the  ill-fated  Nicephorus  on  the  precarious  throne 
of  the  Eastern  Empire,  called  upon  Sviatoslav  to  fulfil  the 
engagement  made  with  his  predecessor  and  evacuate  the 
Imperial  dependency.  The  Prince  in  possession  contemptu- 
ously refused  to  comply  with  this  demand,  and  threatened 
instead  to  march  against  Constantinople  and  drive  the 
Greeks  into  Asia.  Fortunately  for  the  Empire  at  this  crisis 
her  new  ruler  was  a  soldier  of  proved  ability,  and  knew  also 
who  were  the  right  men  to  rely  on  for  active  support  and 
co-operation.  On  the  other  hand  Sviatoslav  prepared  for 
the  coming  struggle  by  enlisting  the  aid  of  the  Bulgarians 
themselves,  the  Magyars,  and  even  roving  bodies  of 
Petchenigs.  With  this  mixed  force  he  burst  into  Thrace, 
ravaging  the  country  up  to  the  walls  of  Adrianople,  where 
the  Imperial  general  Bardas- Scleras,  brother-in-law  of 
Zimisces,  had  entrenched  himself.      Here  in  the  autumn  of 

970  the  fierce  bravery  of  the  Russians  and  their  allies  was 
matched  against  the  Greek  generalship,  with  the  result  that 
Sviatoslav  was  forced  to  retire  into  Bulgaria,  The  recall  of 
Bardas  to  suppress  an  insurrection  in  Capadocia  prevented 
him  from  following  up  his  advantage,  and  gave  the  Russians 
an  opportunity  for  retiring  from  a  position  which  was  no 
longer  safe.  Sviatoslav,  however,  either  did  not  see  his 
danger,  or  chose  to  disregard  it  rather  than  return  home 
baffled  and  empty-handed.      Accordingly  he  spent  the  year 

97 1  in  aimless  raids  into  Macedonia,  while  his  wily  enemy 
made  the  most  elaborate  preparations  for  his  destruction. 
In  the  spring  of  972   Zimisces  advanced  with  a  large  army 


32  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


into  Bulgaria,  while  a  Greek  fleet  blocked  the  mouths  of  the 
Danube,  cutting  off"  the  Russian  line  of  retreat.  Sviatoslav 
with  the  bulk  of  his  army  was  encamped  at  Dristr,  and  here 
tidings  came  that  the  Emperor  had  crossed  the  Balkans 
and,  after  a  stubborn  resistance,  taken  P^reyaslavetz — "  the 
Town  of  Victory" — and  possessed  himself  of  the  person  of 
Prince  Boris.  Nothing  daunted,  Sviatoslav  led  his  army 
against  that  of  Zimisces,  and  a  battle  ensued  which,  from 
the  heroic  valour  with  which  it  was  contested  and  the 
important  issues  involved,  deserves  to  be  recognised  as  one 
of  the  decisive  battles  of  history.  Both  leaders  showed  the 
utmost  personal  courage,  and  victory  for  a  long  while  hung 
doubtful,  but  at  length  the  Greek  forces  prevailed  and 
Sviatoslav  was  driven  back  upon  Dristr,  his  last  stronghold 
in  Bulgaria.  This  time  the  Imperial  success  was  followed 
up,  and  the  town  was  attacked  with  a  vigour  and  determina- 
tion which  was  only  equalled  by  the  stubbornness  of  the 
defence.  The  Russians  made  sorties  by  day,  retreating 
when  outnumbered,  under  the  protection  of  their  huge 
bucklers,  to  within  the  walls  of  the  town,  from  whence  they 
issued  at  night,  to  burn  by  the  light  of  the  moon  the  bodies 
of  their  fallen  comrades,  and  sacrifice  over  their  ashes  the 
prisoners  they  had  taken.  By  way  of  propitiating  their 
gods,  or  possibly  the  Danube,  which  was  covered  with  the 
boats  of  their  enemies,  they  drowned  in  its  waters  cocks 
and  little  children.^  The  Magister  John,  a  relation  of  the 
Emperor,  having  fallen  into  their  hands  in  a  skirmish,  was 
torn  in  pieces  and  his  head  exposed  on  the  battlements. 
The  besieged,  however,  were  daily  reduced  in  numbers  and 
weakened  by  want,  and  Sviatoslav  resolved  on  a  last  bid  for 
victory.  Swarming  forth  from  behind  their  battered 
ramparts,  the  men  of  the  North  met  their  foes  in  open 
field,  and  the  wager  of  battle  was  staunchly  and  obstinately 
contested.  Sviatoslav  was  struck  off  his  horse  and  nearly 
killed,  but  the  Russians  did  not  give  way  until  mid-day, 
when  a  dust-storm  blew  into  their  faces  and  forced  them  to 
yield  the  fight,  leaving  outside  the  walls  of  Dristr,  according 

^  Solov'ev. 


II  IHE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA 


33 


to  the  Byzantine  annalists,  15,000  slain.  The  monkish 
chroniclers,  as  usual,  attributed  the  hard -won  victory  to 
supernatural  intervention,  and  while  the  Imperial  soldiers 
were  resting  from  their  exertions  a  story  was  circulated 
throughout  the  camp  giving  the  credit  of  the  day  to  an 
apparition  of  S.  Theodore  of  Stratilat,  who  had  appeared  in 
the  thick  of  the  battle  mounted  on  a  white  horse.  The 
Russian  defeat,  whether  due  to  saint,  army,  or  dust-storm, 
was  sufficiently  decisive  to  bring  the  Prince  to  sue  for  terms, 
which  were  readily  granted  by  the  Emperor.  The  Russians 
engaged  to  withdraw  from  Bulgaria  and  to  live  at  peace 
with  the  Eastern  Empire  ;  the  Greeks  on  their  part  engaged 
to  permit  Russian  merchants  free  commercial  intercourse 
at  Constantinople.  More  than  this,  the  Emperor  requested 
the  Petchenigs  to  allow  Sviatoslav  and  his  thinned  host 
unmolested  passage  to  his  own  territories.  Whether  this 
was  done  in  good  faith,  or  whether  secret  instructions  were 
given  to  the  contrary,  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  or  at  most  of 
induction  ;  it  is  pleasanter  to  set  against  the  general 
treachery  of  Byzantine  statecraft  the  fact  that  Zimisces  was 
a  brave  man,  and  to  give  him  credit  for  the  honour  which 
is  the  usual  accompaniment  of  courage. 

The  importance  of  this  defeat  cannot  be  over-estimated, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  speculate  as  to  the  possible  results  of 
a  victory  for   Sviatoslav — a  victory  which   might   well   have 
changed  the  whole  course  of  European  history.      A  powerful 
Slavonic  principality  with  its  headquarters  in   the  basin   of 
the  Danube  would  have  attracted  to  itself,  by  the  magnetism 
of  blood,  the  kindred   races  of  Serbs,   Kroats,   Dalmatians, 
Slavonians,  and  Moravians,  all  of  which,  with  the  exception  of 
the  first-named,  were  eventually  absorbed  into  the  Germanic 
Empire  ;  while  Bohemia,  instead  of  gravitating  towards  the 
house  of  Habsburg,  would  more  naturally  have  entered  the 
Russian  State-organism.      From  Pereyaslavetz  to  Constanti- 
nople is  a  short  cry,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  conjecture  that 
under  these  circumstances  the  Slav  and  not  the  Turk  would 
in  due  course  have  stepped  into  the  shoes  of  the  Paleologi. 
The  palace  intrigues,  treason,  and  assassination  which  placed 

D 


34  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


John  Zimisces  on  the  throne  of  the  Caesars  at  this  critical 
juncture  in  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  had  an  effect  on  the 
destinies  of  Europe  which  can  only  be  likened  in  importance 
to  the  Moorish  defeat  on  the  plain  of  Tours  at  the  hands  of 
Charles  Martel. 

After  a  meeting  between  the  leaders  of  the  two  armies, 
during  which  the  Emperor  sat  his  horse  on  the  river  bank 
while  the  vanquished  Prince  stood,  simply  clad,  in  a  boat 
which  he  himself  helped  to  work,  the  latter  made  his  way 
towards  Kiev  with  the  remnant  of  his  following.  But  the 
enemy  which  his  short-sighted  policy  had  neglected  to  crush 
was  waiting  for  him  now  in  the  hour  of  his  extremity  ;  the 
Petchenigs  held  the  cataracts  of  the  Dnicpr,  where  the 
returning  boats  must  be  dragged  ashore,  and  notwithstanding 
their  agreement  with  Zimisces,  blocked  the  passage  of  the 
Russian  army.  Sviatoslav  waited  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
till  the  coming  of  spring,  when  he  risked  a  battle  with  his 
savage  enemies,  and  lost.  Warrior  to  the  last,  he  died 
fighting,  and  tradition  has  it  that  his  skull  became  a  drinking- 
cup  for  the  chief  of  the  Petchenigs  ;  of  the  mighty  host 
which  had  started  out  for  the  conquest  of  Bulgaria  but  few 
made  their  way  back  to  Kiev.  Thus  perished  Sviatoslav, 
in  spite  of  his  Slavonic  name  a  thorough  type  of  the 
Varangian  chieftain.  Brave,  active,  and  enduring,  his  chivalry- 
was  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  it  is  told  of  him  that  he 
always  gave  his  enemies  fair  warning  of  attack,  sending  a 
messenger  before  him  with  the  tidings,  "  I  go  against  you." 
He  was,  however,  more  a  fighter  than  a  general,  and  did  not 
display  the  statesmanlike  qualities  of  Rurik,  Oleg,  and  Olga, 
while  the  unhappy  results  of  his  partition  of  the  realm 
between  his  three  sons  were  immediately  apparent  at  his 
death.  Yaropalk  did  not  enjoy  any  authority  over  the 
districts  ruled  by  his  brothers,  who  lived  as  independent 
princes.  The  inevitable  quarrels  were  not  long  in  breaking 
out.  Consequent  on  a  hunting  fray  in  the  wooded  Drevlian 
country  between  the  retainers  of  Oleg  and  Yaropalk,  in 
which  one  of  the  latter's  men  was  killed,  an  armed  feud 
sprang  up  between  the  brothers,  which  came  to  a  tragic  end 


I 


II 


THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEV  I  AN  RUSSIA  35 


in  a  fight  around  the  town  of  Oubrovtch.  Oleg,  worsted  in  977 
the  battle,  was  thrown  down  by  the  press  of  his  own  soldiers 
as  he  was  seeking  to  enter  the  town,  and  trampled  to  death 
in  the  general  stampede.  Yaropalk  is  said  to  have  been 
plunged  in  remorse  at  this  untoward  event,  but  the  news 
was  otherwise  interpreted  at  Novgorod  and  caused  the  hasty- 
flight  of  the  young  Vladimir  to  Skandinavian  lands,  beyond 
the  reach  of  his  half-brother's  malevolence.  Yaropalk  sent 
his  underlings  to  hold  the  vacant  principality,  and  thus 
became  for  the  time  sole  ruler  of  Russia.  The  outcast, 
however,  after  two  years  of  wandering  in  viking  lands, 
reappeared  suddenly  at  Novgorod  with  a  useful  following  of 
Norse  adventurers,  and  drove  out  his  brother's  lieutenants, 
following  up  this  act  of  defiance  by  moving  at  the  head  of 
his  men  towards  Kiev.  On  the  way  he  turned  aside  to 
Polotzk,  then  held  as  a  dependent  fief  by  a  Varangian  named 
Rogvolod.  This  chief  had  a  daughter,  Rogneda,  trothed  in 
marriage  to  Yaropalk,  and  Vladimir,  by  way  of  ousting  his 
half-brother  from  all  his  possessions,  sent  and  demanded  her 
hand  for  himself  The  maiden  haughtily  refused  to  wed  the 
"  son  of  a  slave,"  and  added  that  she  was  already  pledged 
to  Yaropalk  ;  whereupon  the  headstrong  lover  stormed  the 
town,  slew  her  father  and  two  brothers,  and  bore  off  the 
unwilling  bride — a  wooing  which  somewhat  resembles  that 
of  William  the  Norman  and  Matilda  of  Flanders  some  half- 
hundred  years  later.  The  despoiled  rival  had,  on  the 
approach  of  Vladimir  and  his  war-carles,  shut  himself  up  in 
Kiev,  but  growing  doubtful  of  the  goodwill  of  the  inhabitants, 
he  suffered  himself  to  be  persuaded  by  false  counsellors  to 
move  into  the  small  town  of  Rodnya.  In  consequence  of 
this  faint-hearted  desertion  Kiev  threw  open  her  gates  to 
Vladimir,  who  followed  up  his  good  fortune  by  besieging 
the  Prince  in  his  new  refuge.  Pressed  by  assault  without 
and  famine  within — the  miseries  suffered  by  the  Rodnya 
folk  have  passed  into  a  proverb — the  hunted  Kniaz  rashly, 
or  perhaps  despairingly,  agreed  to  visit  his  peace- feigning 
brother  at  his  palace  in  Kiev.  Yaropalk  alone  was  allowed 
to    enter    the    courtyard    doors,    behind    which    lurked    two 


36  THE  RTSE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Varangian  guards,  who  used  their  blades  quickly  and  well, 
and  Vladimir  reigned  as  sole  Prince  of  the  Russians. 
980         The  early  years  of  the  new  reign  were  devoted  to  family- 
founding   on    a   generous    scale,  the    Prince,   by  his    several 
wives  and  concubines,  becoming  the  father  of  manifold  sons, 
all    of  whom   bore  names  of  distinctly   Slavonic  resonance. 
By  the  raped  Rogneda  he  had   Isiaslav,  Mstislav,  Yaroslav, 
Vsevolod,  and  two  daughters  ;  a  second  wife,  of  Czech  origin, 
presented  him  with  Vouytchislav  ;  a  third  was  the   mother 
of   Sviatoslav,  and    a    fourth,   of  Bulgarian   nationality,  was 
responsible  for   Boris   and    Glieb.      In   addition   to  his  own 
ample  offspring  he  adopted   into  his  family  Sviatopolk,  the 
posthumous  son  of  Yaropalk.      But  the   pressure  of  family 
cares    did    not    absorb    his    undivided    attention.       On    the 
western  border  several  Russian  strongholds  in  the  district  of 
Galitz    (Galicia)    had    been    seized    during    the    embarrassed 
reign  of  Yaropalk  by  Mscislav,  Duke  of  Poland,  and  for  the 
recovery  of  these  Vladimir  set  his  armed   men   in  motion. 
Tcherven,   Peremysl,   and   other  places  fell    into   his    hands, 
but  the  wars  on  the  Polish  march  dragged   on   at  intervals 
and    outlasted    the    reigns   of  both    princes.      This  was    the 
first    clash    of    the    two    neighbour    nations    whose    history 
was    to    be   so    dramatically    interblended.       The    Duke    of 
Poland  had   his  hands  so  full  with  the   intrusive  affairs  of 
Bohemia,   Hungary,  the  Western   Empire,  and   the  Wends, 
that   he  was    obliged    to   content    himself  with  a    policy  of 
defence  on   his   eastern    border,  and   Vladimir  was    able    to 
turn  his  arms  in  other  directions.      In   982   he  suppressed  a 
revolt  of  the  Viatitches,  and  in  the  next  year  extended   his 
authority  among  the  Livs  as  far  as  the  Baltic.      According 
to  the  Chronicle  of  the   Icelandic   annalist  Sturleson,  these 
people  paid  tribute  to  the  Russian  Prince,  but  his  sway  over 
them  could  only  have  lasted  a  while,  as  they  certainly  enjoyed 
independence  till  a   much   later  date.      Two  years   later  he 
made    a   successful    raid    into    the    country   of   the    Volga- 
Bulgarians,  which  he  wisely  followed  up  by  a  well-marketed 
peace,  and  returned  to  Kiev  not  empty-handed. 

At  this  period    the    Christian    religion   was    making   its 


II  THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA  37 

final  conquest  of  the  outlying  princes  and  peoples  of  Europe. 
The  double  influence  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the 
Papal  See — the  latter  now  free  from  any  dependence  on  the 
Byzantine  Court — gave  that  religion  a  powerful  advertisement 
among  the  outlandish  folks,  and  as  each  nation  was  brought 
into  subjection  to,  or  enjoyed  intercourse  with  the  great 
central  State,  so  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  prevailing 
worship  were  displayed  before  their  eyes  with  all  the  glamour 
and  sanction  of  Imperial  authority.  The  Saxon  annalist, 
Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg,  recounts,  for  instance,  how  Easter 
was  kept  at  Quedlingburg  in  the  year  973  by  the  Emperor 
Otho  I.  and  his  son  (afterwards  Otho  II.),  attended  by  envoys 
from  Rome,  Greece,  Benevento,  Italy,  Hungary,  Denmark, 
Slavonia,  Bulgaria,  and  Russia,  "  with  great  presents."  The 
feasts  and  devotions  observed  in  the  little  town,  the  services 
in  the  hill-top  abbey,  founded  by  Henry  the  Fowler,  the 
processions  of  chanting  monks  with  lighted  tapers — all  in 
honour  of  the  Man-God  who  had  died  in  a  far  country,  but 
who  rose  triumphant  to  live  above  them  in  the  sky  and 
behind  the  high  altar — would  not  fail  to  make  deep  im- 
pression on  the  heathen  visitors.  The  western  Prince  was 
so  much  greater  and  richer  and  more  powerful  than  their 
princes,  might  not  the  western  gods  be  greater  than  their 
gods  ?  Bohemia,  which  early  in  its  history  came  into  close 
contact  with  the  Empire,  had  already  adopted  Christianity, 
and  in  Poland  Vladimir's  contemporary  and  sometime  an- 
tagonist, Mscislav,  had  in  966  entered  the  same  faith. 
Hungary  was  still  pagan,  though  its  conversion  was  to  come 
in  the  lifetime  of  the  reigning  Duke  (Geyza),  while  in 
Norway,  towards  the  close  of  the  century,  the  worshippers 
of  Wodin  were  to  be  confronted  with  the  alternative  of 
death  or  baptism. 

In  no  country  was  the  transition  from  paganism  to 
Christianity  effected  in  so  remarkable  a  manner  as  in  Russia. 
Vladimir,  who  had  shown  much  zeal  in  erecting  and  orna- 
menting statues  of  Peroun  at  Kiev  and  Novgorod,  grew 
suddenly  dissatisfied  with  the  national  worship,  without  at 
the  same  time  feeling  special  attraction  towards  any  substitute. 


38 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


While   contemplating   a    desertion   of   the   old    religion    he 
naturally  wished  to  replace  it  with  the  most  reliable  form 
of  faith  obtainable,  and   for  this  purpose  trusty  counsellors 
were  sent  on  a  mission   of  inquiry  to   Rome,  to  Constanti- 
nople, to  the  Volga-Bulgarians  (who  had   embraced   Islam), 
and    to    the    Jews — probably    those    dwelling    among    the 
Khazars.     When  the  scattered  envoys  returned,  the  result 
of  their  investigations  was  laid    before  Vladimir,  and    this 
young  man  in  search  of  a  religion  examined  and  compared 
the  pretensions  of  the  competing  creeds.      Circumcision  and 
abstinence  from  wine  put  the  cult  of  the   Prophet    out    of 
court  ;    the  first  of  these  objections  applied  equally  to  the 
Jewish  doctrine,  and  the  vagabond  condition  of  its  votaries 
offended  the  monarch's  idea  of  an  established  religion.      The 
Romish   faith    was   unacceptable   by   reason   of   the    claims, 
which     her    head    was    beginning    to    assert,    of    supreme 
dominion    in    things    spiritual     and    active    interference    in 
temporal    matters ;    moreover,  her    ritual,  especially   as    the 
Russians  may  have  seen  it  practised  in  the  infant  churches 
of  Bohemia,  Poland,  and  Eastern  Germany,  was  overshadowed 
and  eclipsed  by  the  splendid  ceremonial  of  the  Greek  Church, 
particularly  in   the  services  of  S.  Sophia  at  Constantinople. 
"  The  magnificence  of  the  temple,  the  presence  of  all  the 
Greek  clergy,  the  richness  of  the  sacerdotal  vestments,  the 
ornaments  of  the  altar,  the  exquisite  odour  of  the  incense, 
the  sweet  singing  of  the  choirs,  the  silence  of  the  people, 
in  short,  the  holy  and  mysterious  majesty  of  the  ceremonies, 
all  struck  the  Russians  with  admiration."  ^      The   recital  of 
these  splendours  inclined  the   Prince  to   a  favourable   con- 
sideration of  the  Greek  faith,  if  indeed  he  had  not  previousl)- 
had  leanings  towards  that  religion,  and  the  finishing  touch 
was  added  by  an  argument  which   appealed   to  his   family 
pride.     "  If  the  Greek  religion  had  not  been  the  true  religion, 
would  your  grandmother  Olga,  the  wisest  of  mortals,  have 
adopted  it  ?  "  asked  the  partisans  of  the  new  doctrines  ;   and 
the  matter  was  settled.      But  Vladimir  had   a  procedure  of 
his  own  for  the  delicate  process  of  changing  his   religion  : 

*  Karamzin, 


II 


THE  BUILDING  OF  K IE  VI AN  RUSSIA  39 


not  as  a  humble  penitent  was  he  going  to  enter  the  true 
Church.  For  the  baptism  of  a  sovereign  prince  an  arch- 
bishop was  an  indispensable  requisite,  and  it  did  not  suit  his 
ideas  of  dignity  to  apply  for  the  loan  of  such  a  functionary 
to  the  Greek  Emperors,  who  would  have  been  only  too  glad 
to  oblige  him  in  the  matter.  Vladimir  chose  rather  to 
capture  his  archbishop.  For  this  purpose  he  engaged  in 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  expeditions  which  history  has 
furnished.  Setting  out  from  Kiev  with  a  large  host,  he 
made  his  way  down  the  Dniepr  and  along  the  Black  Sea 
coast  to  the  ancient  town  of  Kherson,  a  self-governing 
dependency  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  Closely  besieging  it, 
he  was  met  with  a  desperate  resistance,  and  only  made  him- 
self master  of  the  place  by  cutting  off  the  springs  which 
supplied  it  with  water.  From  this  position  of  vantage  he 
sent  to  the  brothers  Basil  and  Constantine,  who  shared  the 
Greek  Imperial  throne,  a  request  or  demand  for  the  hand 
of  their  sister  Anne.  The  circumstances  of  these  princes 
did  not  admit  of  a  refusal  ;  the  celebrated  generals  Bardas 
Sclerus  and  Phocas  were  in  active  revolt  against  the  suc- 
cessors of  John  Zimisces,  and  another  change  of  dynasty 
seemed  imminent ;  consequently  Vladimir's  suggested  alliance 
was  agreed  to  on  the  stipulation  that  he  became  a  Christian 
and  furnished  the  Imperial  family  with  some  Russian  auxili- 
aries. The  Princess  Anne  was  despatched  to  join  her  destined 
husband,  who  was  forthwith  baptized  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Kherson  in  the  church  of  S.  Basil,  and  the  marriage  ceremony 
followed.  The  Prince  returned  to  Kiev  with  his  bride  and 
a  strange  booty  of  priests,  sacred  vessels,  and  saintly  relics, 
having  restored  unfortunate  Kherson,  for  which  he  had  no 
further  use,  to  the  Greek  Emperors,  and  sent  them  the 
promised  succours.  By  this  satisfactory  arrangement  Basil 
and  Constantine  were  able  to  conserve  their  possession  of 
the  Byzantine  Empire,  while  Vladimir  on  his  part  "  obtained 
the  hand  of  the  princess  and  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Fantastic  as  this  procedure  of  conversion  may  at  first 
sight  appear,  there  was  probably  sound  policy  underlying  it  ; 
the  Russians  would  be  reconciled  to  the  deposition  of  their 


40  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


wonted  gods,  and  the  acceptance  of  fresh  ones  from  their 
old  enemies,  the  Greeks,  by  the  consoling  reflection  that 
their  Prince  had,  at  the  sword's  point,  "  captured  "  the  new 
religion  from  alien  hands.  Priests  have  taught  that  there 
is  but  one  way  of  entering  the  true  faith  ;  Vladimir  demon- 
strated that  there  are  at  least  two. 

The  conversion  of  the  people  followed  in  due  course  ; 
the  wooden  statue  of  Peroun,  with  its  silver  face  and 
moustache  of  gold,  was  thrown  down,  flogged  with  whips, 
and  hurled  into  the  Dniepr,  whose  waters  cast  it  up  again 
on  the  bank.  The  affrighted  people  rushed  to  worship 
their  old  god,  but  the  Prince's  men  pushed  him  back  into 
the  current,  and  Peroun  the  silver- faced  was  swept  down 
the  stream  and  vanished  into  the  purple  haze  "  where  the 
dead  gods  sleep." 

On  the  banks  of  the  same  river  that  had  engulfed  their 
fallen  idol  the  inhabitants  of  Kiev  were  mustered  by  com- 
mand, and  after  the  Greek  priests  had  consecrated  its  waters, 
into  it  plunged  at  a  given  signal  the  whole  wondering 
multitude,  men,  women,  and  children,  and  were  baptized  in 
one  batch.  A  like  scene  was  enacted  at  Novgorod,  with 
the  substitution  of  the  Volkhov  for  the  Dniepr,  and  through- 
out Russia  the  transition  was  effected  in  an  equally  success- 
ful manner.  No  doubt  the  cult  of  the  ancient  pantheism 
lingered  for  a  while,  especially  in  the  remoter  districts,  but 
it  was  merged  in  time  in  the  saint  worship  of  the  new 
religion,  and  the  old  heathen  festivals  and  year -marks 
became,  under  other  names,  those  of  the  Christian  calendar. 
The  feast  of  Kolyada  and  the  birthday  of  the  Sun  slid 
naturally  into  the  celebrations  of  the  Nativity  without  losing 
aught  of  its  festive  character.  In  similar  fashion  the  institu- 
tions of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church  everywhere  took  root 
in  the  country  till  they  became  part  of  the  life  of  the  people. 
Kiev  henceforth  is  a  city  of  churches  and  shrines,  with  its 
Cathedral  of  S.  Sofia  and  its  Golden  Gate,  in  ambitious 
imitation  of  Constantinople. 

The  adoption  of  Christianity  in  its  Greek  form  exercised 
a  momentous  influence  on   the   history  of   Russia.      Up  to 


II 


THE  BUILDING  OF  K IE VI AN  RUSSIA  41 


this  point  she  had  been  travelling  in  the  same  direction  as 
the  erowinsT  nations  around  her,  and  seemed  destined  to 
take  her  place  in  the  European  family  ;  but  by  taking  as 
her  ghostly  sponsor  the  decaying  Byzantine  State,  which 
could  scarcely  protect  its  own  territories,  instead  of  cultivating 
the  alliance  of  the  all-powerful  Roman  Papacy,  she  prepared 
herself  for  a  gradual  isolation  from  Western  civilisation  and 
Western  sympathy.  For  although  the  actual  temporal  power 
of  the  Holy  See  did  not  extend  much  beyond  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  Eternal  City,  the  moral  ascendancy 
which  the  Church  possessed  over  some  fifteen  kingdoms  and 
a  crowd  of  lesser  states  gave  her  the  disposal  of  an  ever- 
available  fund  of  temporal  support,  and  enabled  her  to 
extend  her  protection  or  assistance  to  all  the  bodies  politic, 
great  or  small,  within  her  communion.  Witness,  for  instance, 
the  vast  armies  she  was  able  to  send  careering  into  the 
"  Holy  Land  "  on  behoof  of  Jerusalem-bound  pilgrims,  and 
later,  the  troops  she  could  raise  from  various  parts  of  the 
Empire  for  the  reinforcement  of  the  Teutonic  Order  in  its 
struggles  with  the  heathen  Prussians  and  Pomeranians. 
Russia,  by  her  adoption  of  the  Greek  instead  of  the  Roman 
faith,  put  herself  beyond  the  pale  of  Catholic  Christendom, 
and  in  the  hour  of  her  striving  with  the  Mongol  Horde  could 
look  for  no  help  from  Western  Europe  ;  when  she  emerged 
from  that  strife  she  was  less  European  than  Asiatic.  In 
like  manner  the  Greek  Empire,  two  hundred  years  later, 
fell  unbefriended  into  the  hands  of  the  Ottomans.  And  in 
civilisation  as  well  as  in  war  the  dominions  of  the  princes 
of  Kiev  suffered  from  their  lack  of  intercourse  with  Rome  ; 
the  visits  of  cardinals  and  nuncios  would  have  served  as  a 
constant  link  between  Russia  and  the  West,  and  have  stimu- 
lated the  growth  of  towns  in  the  wild  lands  that  led  up  to 
the  Dniepr  basin.  What  in  fact  Rome  did  for  Hungary, 
on  the  latter's  entry  into  the  Latin  Church — raising  her 
from  the  position  of  a  semi-barbarous  state  to  that  of  an 
important  kingdom — that  might  she  have  done  under  similar 
circumstances  for  the  Eastern  principality.  There  is,  of  course, 
another  side  to  this  reckoning  ;   Russia,  at  least,  was  spared 


42  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


some  of  the  distractions  and  unhappinesses  which  radiated 
from  the  throne  of  the  apostles,  while  her  ver>'  isolation  in 
matters  of  religious  polity  helped  to  preserve  for  her  a  strong 
individuality  which  other  Slav  or  Magyar  nations  lost  as 
the  price  of  their  intercourse  with  Catholic-Teutonic  Europe. 
Possibly  her  history  is  not  even  yet  sufficiently  developed 
for  a  final  assessment  of  the  matter,  but  for  present  purposes 
it  is  necessary  to  note  a  turning-point  in  her  political  evolu- 
tion— a  turn  towards  the  East. 

Although  Christianity  was  become  opposed  to  the  {practice 
of  polygamy,  Vladimir's  first  act  after  his  baptism  had  been 
to  increase  his  connubial  establishment  by  marriage  with 
the  Imperial  princess.  Three  more  sons  had  been  added 
to  his  already  ample  family,  and,  disregarding  the  lesson  of 
the  disturbances  which  had  followed  the  partition  of  the 
realm  between  himself  and  his  half-brothers,  the  Prince 
resolved  to  parcel  out  his  dominions  among  his  surviving 
sons  and  his  nephew.  Eight  principalities  were  carved  out 
from  the  parent  stem,  and  became  each  the  share  of  a  de- 
pendent kniaz,  to  wit,  Novgorod,  Polotzk,  Rostov,  Mourom, 
the  Drevlian  country,  Vladimir  (in  Volhynia),  Tmoutorokan, 
and  Tourov, 

In  998  the  Russian  arms  were  turned  successfully 
against  the  Krovatians  on  the  Galician  frontier,  and  against 
the  ever  troublesome  Petchenigs,  who  continued  to  disturb 
the  southern  borders  at  intervals  during  the  reign. 

Another  war  broke  out  later  in  the  north.  Vladimir 
had  given  refuge,  and  possibly  support,  to  Olaf,  aspirant  to 
the  Norwegian  crown,  then  held  by  Erik,  and  when  Olaf 
at  last  succeeded  in  ousting  his  rival,  the  latter,  in  revenge, 
"  came  into  the  realm  of  King  Vladimir,"  in  the  vigorous 
words  of  the  Icelandic  saga,  and  "  fell  a-harrying,  and  slew 
men-folk,  and  burnt  all  before  him,  and  laid  waste  the  land  ; 
and  he  came  to  Aldeigia-burg,^  and  beset  it  till  he  won  the 
stead.  There  he  slew  many  folk  and  brake  down  and  burnt 
all  the  burg,  and  thereafter  fared  wide  about  Garth-realm  ^ 
doing  all  deeds  of  war."      It  was  four  years  before  Vladimir 

1  Old  Ladoga.  2  Qld  Skandinavian  name  for  Russia. 


II 


THE  BUILDING  OF  K IE  VI AN  RUSSIA  43 


was  able  to  drive  the  "  spear-storm  bounteous  Eric  "  away 
from  his  northern  coasts.  The  date  of  this  war  is  uncertain ; 
probably  it  stretched  into  the  second  decade  of  the  new 
century.  Vladimir,  who  had  lost  his  Imperial  throne-mate 
in  loii,  was  confronted  in  10 14  with  a  domestic  trouble 
of  another  nature;  his  son  Yaroslav,  Kniaz  of  Novgorod, 
refused  to  continue  the  yearly  tribute  which  that  principality 
was  wont  to  pay  into  the  Grand  Prince's  treasury,  and 
declared  himself  independent  of  Kiev.  Vladimir  made 
ready  to  march  against  his  rebellious  son,  who  on  his 
part  prepared  to  resist  his  angry  father,  but  the  sudden 
failing  of  the  old  man's  powers  and  an  inroad  of  the  perennial 
Petchenigs  delayed  the  struggle.  Vladimir's  favourite  son 
Boris,  Prince  of  Rostov,  was  put  in  charge  of  the  forces  sent 
against  the  invaders,  and  during  his  absence  the  monarch  1015 
ended  his  days  at  Berestov  (a  village  near  Kiev),  leaving  the 
succession  to  the  Grand  principality  an  open  question. 

The  character  of  this  Prince,  to  whom  the  Church  gave 
the  title  of  "  Holy,"  and  who  was  commemorated  by  his 
subjects  as  "  the  Great,"  is  a  difficult  one  for  the  historian  to 
appraise.  The  excesses  of  a  stormy  and  well-spent  youth 
were  atoned  for,  in  the  eyes  of  the  monkish  chroniclers,  by 
an  old  age  of  almsgiving  and  other  decorative  virtues,  and 
in  most  respects  the  doings  of  his  reign  gave  evidence  of 
wise  and  wary  management.  The  splitting  up  of  his  kingdom 
was  a  flaw  in  his  statecraft  which  had,  however,  the  sanction 
of  custom  in  the  times  in  which  he  lived. 

The  only  member  of  the  Grand  Prince's  family  within 
reach  of  Kiev  at  the  moment  of  his  death  was  his  nephew 
Sviatopalk,  ruler  of  the  province  of  Tourov,  in  which  capa- 
city, according  to  the  contemporary  Chronicle  of  Ditmar, 
Bishop  of  Merseburg,  he  had,  at  the  prompting  of  his  father- 
in-law  Boleslas,  King  of  Poland,  raised  a  rebellion  against 
Vladimir.  The  attempt  was  frustrated  and  punished  by  the 
imprisonment  of  the  rebel  and  his  wife,  but  apparently  a 
reconciliation  had  taken  place  between  the  uncle  and  nephew, 
and  Sviatopalk  was  at  large,  and,  what  was  more  important, 
on  the  spot  when  the  throne  of  Kiev  became  empty.      The 


44  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


boyarins  of  the  court,  ill-disposed  towards  a  prince  who  was 
outside  the  immediate  family  of  their  late   master,  tried   to 
keep  back   the   tidings   of  his   death   while  they  sent  mes- 
sengers  to  recall  Boris  from  his  fruitless  campaign   against 
the    Petchenigs.       The    corpse    was    wrapped    round    in    a 
covering,  let  down  by  ropes  from  a  palace  window  in  the 
dead  of  night,  and   borne  hurriedly   to   the   church  of  the 
Bogoroditza   (Mother  of  God)   at    Kiev.      Rumours   of  the 
Prince's  death,  however,  began  to  fly  about  the  city,  and  all 
precautions  were  rendered  abortive  by  the  tell-tale  sight  of 
the  crowds  which  flocked  to  lament  over  his  body.      Sviato- 
palk  proclaimed  himself  Grand  Prince,  rallied  the  boyarins  to 
his  side  by  a  timely  distribution  of  gifts,  and  then  proceeded 
to  strike,  with  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  at  the  several 
kinsmen  who  were  within  reach.      Prince  Boris  was  surprised 
and  slain  one  night  in  his  tent  near  the  banks  of  the  Alta, 
being,  the  Chronicles  relate,  engaged  in  prayer  at  the  time  of 
his  murder.      This  circumstance  procured   for  him  the  post- 
humous honour  of  sainthood,  and  he  became  a  national  fetish 
in  the  calendar  of  the  Russian  Church.      His  brother  Glieb, 
decoyed    from    his   principality    of    Mourom    by    a    feigned 
message  from  his  defunct  father,  was  waylaid  while  travelling 
down  the   Dniepr  and   met  the  same  doom — shared   also  in 
the  attendant  glory  of  subsequent  canonisafion.      Sviatoslav, 
Prince  of  the  Drevlian   country,   taking  natural   affright   at 
Sviatopalk's  deeds,  which  seemed  to  foreshadow  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  sons  of  Vladimir,  fled  towards  Hungary  ;  at  the 
foot  of  the  Karpathian  Mountains,  however,  he  was  overtaken 
and  killed  by  the  Grand  Prince's  men.      PVom  this  scene  of 
slaughter  and  violence  there  escaped  a  shivering  fugitive,  the 
Princess    Predslava,    a   daughter  of  the    luckless    house    of 
Vladimir,  who  made  her  way  with  all   speed  to   Novgorod  : 
there  she  found  her  brother  Yaroslav  red  with  the  blood   of 
his  subjects,  shed   in  cold  vindictiveness  rather  than   in  hot 
quarrel.     The  hideous  wrath  and   dole  called   forth  by  the 
doings  of  Sviatopalk  mastered  all  other  passions,  and  led  the 
Prince    to    throw   himself  on   the   goodwill    ofHiis    misused 
people  ;  and  the  men  of  Novgorod,  foregoing  their  private 


II  THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA  45 

griefs,  turned  their  rage  and  their  weapons  against  the 
monster  of  Kiev.  A  thousand  Varangians  and  fourteen  1016 
thousand  Russians  marched  southward  with  Yaroslav  against 
Sviatopalk,  who  on  his  part  had  got  together  a  large  force, 
including  a  troop  of  Petchenigs.  A  battle  was  fought  on 
the  Dniepr  banks  near  Lubetch,  which  resulted  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  usurper,  who  fled  to  Poland,  leaving  the  throne 
of  Kiev  to  his  triumphant  rival. 

Yaroslav  did  not  remain  long  time  in  peaceable  possession. 
Boleslas  "  Khrabrie,"  the  warlike  King  of  Poland,  having  by 
the  Peace  of  Bautzen  composed  his  outstanding  differences 
with  the  Germanic  Kaiser  (Heinrich  II.),  burst  into  Russia  at 
the  head  of  a  large  army,  defeated  Yaroslav  on  the  banks  of 
the  Bug,  and  reimposed  his  son-in-law  upon  the  people  of 
Kiev.  The  ousted  prince  withdrew  to  Novgorod,  and  but 
for  the  insistance  of  his  subjects  would  have  sought  sanctuary, 
as  his  father  had  done  under  similar  circumstances,  in  Skan- 
dinavian  lands.  The  Novgorodskie,  not  wishing  to  be  left  to 
the  wrath  of  Sviatopalk,  kept  their  prince  with  them  by  the 
simple  expedient  of  destroying  all  the  boats  available  for  his 
flight.  Sviatopalk  himself  smoothed  the  way  for  a  renewal 
of  the  strife  on  more  equal  terms.  The  Poles  had  been 
distributed  in  scattered  winter  quarters  throughout  the 
province  of  Kiev,  and  Boleslas  himself  had  estafetished  his 
court  in  the  city.  Possibly  the  Russian  Kniaz  was  impatient 
of  the  prolonged  presence  of  the  Poles  in  his  lands,  and  deemed 
that  heroic  measures  were  needed  to  hasten  their  departure  ; 
anyhow  he  devised  and  carried  out  the  plan  of  a  general 
massacre  of  the  unwelcome  guests.  Boleslas  hastily  left 
Kiev  with  the  remnant  of  his  men,  bearing  with  him  as  much 
treasure  as  he  could  lay  hands  on,  and  retaining  in  his  hold 
the  Red  Russian  towns  on  his  border.  The  departure  of 
the  Poles  brought  as  a  consequence  the  onfall  of  Yaroslav, 
and  Sviatopalk  was  obliged  to  seek  support  among  the 
Petchenigs  before  venturing  to  take  the  field  against  his 
cousin.  The  two  forces  met  near  the  ^anks  of  the  Alta,  and  1019 
there  was  waged  a  fierce  and  stubborn  battle,  the  like  of 
which,  wrote  the  Kievian  chronicler,  had  never  been  seen  in 


46  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


Russia.  Towards  evening  Yaroslav's  men  gained  the  victory, 
and  Sviatopalk,  half-dead  with  fatigue,  delirious  with  fear,  and 
unable  to  sit  his  horse,  was  borne  litter-wise  through  the 
whispering  night  in  wild  flight  across  a  wild  countr>',  hunted 
ever  by  phantom  foemen,  and  moaning  ever  to  his  bearers 
piteous  entreaty  for  added  speed.  The  fugitive  checked  his 
spent  course  in  the"  deserts  of  the  Bohemian  border,  where 
he  died  miserably,  and  contemporary  legend,  recalling  the 
circumstances  of  his  birth,  asserted  that  he  was  born  for 
crime.      In  which  case  he  fulfilled  his  purpose. 

Yaroslav  was  now  master  of  Kiev  and  Novgorod  and 
Grand  Prince  of  Russia,  but  the  family  arrangements  of 
Vladimir's  many  heirs  had  not  yet  adjusted  themselves. 
From  Isiaslav,  Kniaz  of  Polotzk,  sprang  a  line  of  turbulent 
princes  who  contributed  a  fair  share  to  the  domestic  troubles 
of  Russia  during  the  next  hundred  years.^  Still  more  for- 
midable for  the  time  being  was  Mstislav,  whose  family 
portion  was  Tmoutorakan,  a  province  bordering  on  the 
Black  Sea.  In  conjunction  with  the  Greek  Imperial  General 
(1016)  Andronicus  he  had  driven  the  Khazars  from  the  Tauridc  and 
put  a  finishing  touch  to  their  existence  as  a  European  State. 
Other  victories  over  the  Tcherkess  tribes  in  his  neighbour- 
hood swelled  both  his  ideas  and  his  resources,  and  he  began 
to  feel  his  remote  steppe-girded  province  too  small  for  him. 
In  1023,  while  Yaroslav  was  away  in  the  Souzdal  country, 
Mstislav  burst  with  his  warriors  into  the  grand  principality 
and  seized  upon  Tchernigov  in  the  Sieverski  plain.  The 
harassed  Grand  Prince  fled  to  Novgorod — his  usual  city  of 
refuge — and  sent  urgent  messengers  over  the  Baltic  to  call 
in  the  ever-ready  Varangians  to  his  aid.  In  response  came 
a  large  force,  led  by  one  Hako  (in  the  Russian  Chronicle 
Yakun),  who  has  come  down  to  posterity  as  suffering  from 
sore  eyes  and  wearing  a  bandage  over  them  broidered  with 
gold — a  human  touch  in  the  portrait  of  one  of  these  half- 
mythical  seeming  vikings.  The  avenging  army  came  into 
the  Tchernigov  land  and  met  their  foes  on  the  banks  of  a 
small  river,  the  two  forces  sighting  one  another  just  as  night 

^  See  genealogical  table. 


n  THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA  47 


was  falling  and  a  nasty  storm  creeping  upon  them.      As  the 
storm   broke  over  the  Grand   Prince's  host,  accompanied   by 
thunder  peals  and  torrents  of  rain,  out  of  the  night  there 
rushed  in  on  them  the  war-men  of  the  intrepid  Mstislav,  who 
rivalled  with  his  wild  battle-shock  the  tumult  of  the  elements. 
In  the  darkness  men   fought  hand  to  hand  with  a  foe  they 
could  not  see  ;  the  storm  in  the  heavens  rolled  away,  but  the 
humans  fought  on,  their  arms  flashing  in  the  gleam  of  the 
stars,  "  a  combat  without  comparison,  murderous,  terrible,  and 
truly  frightful."  ^      A  charge  by  Mstislav  and  his  body-guards 
decided    the   day — or  rather  the  night — and   Yaroslav  fled 
from  the  field  of  this  epic  struggle  to  his  haven  in  the  North. 
Hakon  of  the  sore  eyes  left  on  the  ground  his  gold-wrought 
bandage    as    a    trophy    for    the    victorious    Tchernigovskie. 
Mstislav  did  not  push  his  advantage  to  the  extent  of  depriv- 
ing Yaroslav  of  his  princely  dignity,  and   five  years  later  a 
pact  was  made  between  the  brothers  which  left  the  younger 
in  possession  of  the  lands  he  had  won  east  of  the  Dniepr. 
Yaroslav  was  thus  enabled  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  out- 
lying regions  of  the  realm,   where  his  authority  had   lapsed 
during  the  long  civil  strife.      In  the  year  1030  Livland   was 
again  brought  under  some  sort  of  subjection,  and  the  town  of 
Youriev  (the  German   Dorpat)  founded    near  Lake   Peipus. 
The  domestic  troubles  of  Poland,  where  Mieceslav  II.,  son  of 
Boleslas  Khrabrie  (who  had  died  1025),  was  waging  a  hotly 
contested  war  with  his  brothers  and  the  Kaiser  Konrad   II., 
gave  an  opportunity  for  regaining  the  Red   Russian   towns 
which  perennially  changed  hands  according  to  the  respective 
strength  and  weakness  of  the  two  countries.      Yaroslav,  in  1031 
conjunction  with  his  half-brother,  invaded  Poland  and  wrested 
back  the  lost  territory.      In    1034  died   Mstislav,  at  the  end 
of  a  day's  hunting,  having  shortly  before  lost  his  only  son 
Evstaf      Of  all  the  sons  of  Vladimir  this  intrepid   warrior 
"with  dark  .face  and   large  eyes"  seems   most  to  have  en- 
chained the  imagination  of  the  national  chronicler. 

Yaroslav,  freed  from  the  disquieting  possibility  of  trouble 
which   Mstislav  must  always  have  presented,  made  himself 

^    Clu-oniqtie  de  Nestor. 


48  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

still  more  secure  by  seizing  and  imprisoning,  on  pretext  of 
disaffection,  Soudislav  of  Pskov,  another  member  of  the 
princely  house.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was  called  upon  to 
defend  Kiev  from  an  attack  of  the  Petchenigs.  Near  the 
walls  of  the  city  Yaroslav  joined  issue  with  the  barbarians, 
his  vanguard  consisting  of  Varangians,  flanked  right  and 
left  by  the  men  of  Kiev  and  Novgorod.  After  a  battle  which 
lasted  till  evening  the  Petchenigs  broke  and  fled,  leaving 
enormous  numbers  of  dead  on  the  field,  and  losing  many 
more  in  crossing  the  rivers  which  impeded  their  flight.  On 
the  ground  of  this  victory  Yaroslav  founded  the  Cathedral 
of  S.  Sofia,  extending  at  the.  same  time  the  boundaries  of 
Kiev  so  as  to  include  this  building,  and  enclosing  the  city 
with  a  stone  wall.  Well  might  the  Kicvians  rejoice  as  they 
watched  the  new  works,  which  were  alike  the  witness  of 
their  growing  prosperity  and  a  memorial  of  a  past  danger  ; 
they  had  at  last  grasped  their  nettle,  and  the  might  of  the 
Petchenigs,  which  had  hung  so  long  like  a  menacing 
shadow  ready  at  any  moment  to  ride  out  of  the  steppe  a 
grim  reality,  was  for  ever  shattered.  And  as  the  new 
cathedral  rose  before  them  their  hopes  might  soar  to  a  point 
which  would  raise  the  mother  of  Russian  cities  to  the  level 
of  Constantinople. 

Amid  their  own  congratulations  and  complacency  came 
news  of  the  misfortunes  of  a  neighbouring  and  rival  state  ; 
possibly  across  the  border,  through  Krobatian  and  Drevlian 
lands,  more  probably  by  a  less  direct  route,  by  word  of 
merchants  from  the  Oder  and  Weichsel  filtering  down  from 
Novgorod  or  Polotzk,  tidings  would  reach  them  of  wild 
doings  in  Poland.  Mieceslav  II.  had  "passed  in  battle  and 
in  storm  "  ;  and  diminished  though  his  territories  were  under 
stress  of  German,  Russian,  and  Bohemian  filchings,  they 
were  more  than  a  handful  for  his  widow  and  youthful  son  to 
manage.  Richense,  daughter  of  Ehrcnfrid,  I'falzgraf  of  the 
Rhine,  tries  to  play  the  Queen-mother  with  the  support  of 
a  hierarchy  itself  not  yet  firmly  established  ;  but  she  is  no 
Olga,  moreover  she  is  a  German.  The  bishops  are  German 
too,  and  throne,  hierarchy,  new  religion,  and  all  are  involved 


II  THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA  49 

in  the  whirlwind  of  a  reaction  that  scatters  them  in  all 
directions,  Richense  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor  in  Saxony, 
her  son,  Kazimir,  to  France,  where  he  enters  the  service  of 
Mother  Church  as  a  monk  of  the  celebrated  Abbey  of  Cluny. 
Yaroslav,  taking  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  his  western 
neighbour,  began  in  1040  a  series  of  campaigns  against  the 
tribes  which  inhabited  the  dense  marsh  and  river- sected 
forests  lying  to  the  north-east  of  Poland,  between  Russia 
and  the  Baltic.  The  Yatvyags  first  occupied  his  attention, 
though  it  is  doubtful  if  he  acquired  more  than  a  transient 
sway  over  them.  He  next  turned  the  weight  of  his  arms 
against  the  Lit'uanians,  upon  a  section  of  whom  at  least  he 
imposed  a  tribute.  The  year  1041  found  him  actually  in 
Polish  territory,  in  the  province  or  palatinate  of  Mazovia, 
which  had  separated  from  the  lands  of  the  Polish  crown — if 
such  a  designation  can  be  used  during  an  interregnum — 
under  the  rule  of  a  heathen  noble  named  Mazlav,  from 
whom  the  province  took  its  name.  Meanwhile  the  force  of 
the  reaction  in  Poland  had  spent  itself,  the  bishops  retook 
possession  of  their  dioceses,  and  Kazimir  was  fetched,  with 
the  Pope's  permission,  from  the  peaceful  seclusion  of  the 
Burgundian  monastery  to  the  management  of  a  country 
smouldering  with  the  embers  of  anarchy  and  religious 
persecution.  Yaroslav  seized  the  opportunity  to  form  an 
alliance  with  the  young  Duke  of  Poland,  by  virtue  of  which 
the  contested  Galician  or  Red  Russian  March  was  definitely 
ceded  to  the  Grand  Prince,  who  on  his  part  helped  Kazimir 
to  defeat  the  rebel  Voevoda  ^  of  Mazovia  and  reannex  that 
province  to  his  duchy.  The  good  understanding  between 
the  princes  was  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Kazimir  with 
Mariya,  sister  of  Yaroslav. 

Russia  was  thus  freed  from  the  apprehension  of  trouble 
both  on  the  Polish  frontier  and  on  the  side  of  the  steppes, 
where  the  power  of  the  Petchenigs  was  effectively 
broken.       A    new    war-cloud,    however,    rose   in    the    south, 

^  Although  loth  to  introduce  a  fresh  spelling  for  a  word  which  has  already 
been  rendered  in  some  dozen  or  more  forms  by  English,  French,  and  German 
historians,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  follow  the  Russian  orthography  of  this 
Slavonic  title. 

E 


so 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


emanating  from  a  quarrel  among  Greek  and  Russian 
merchants  at  Constantinople,  in  which  one  of  the  latter 
was  killed.  Yaroslav  demanded  satisfaction  from  the 
Greek  Emperor,  Constantine  Monomachus,  and  not  obtaining 
1043  it,  he  sent  an  army  against  the  Greeks,  confiding  its  direction 
to  his  eldest  son  Vladimir  and  a  boyarin  named  Vyatcha. 
Scorning  the  overtures  for  peace  which  came  at  late  moment 
from  the  frightened  Emperor,  the  Russians  met  their  enemies 
in  a  naval  fight,  wherein  the  Greek  fire  and  the  inevitable 
storm  played  their  accustomed  parts.  Six  thousand  of 
Vladimir's  men  were  forced  to  abandon  their  damaged 
vessels  and  attempt  to  make  good  their  retreat  overland,  led 
by  Vyatcha,  who  would  not  desert  them  in  their  extremity. 
Constantine,  instead  of  resting  content  with  the  victory 
which  fortune  had  given  him,  or  following  it  up  with  a 
vigorous  pursuit,  satisfied  himself  with  half- measures, 
returning  in  premature  triumph  to  his  capital  while  he  sent 
the  remainder  of  his  ships  to  hunt  the  Russians  out  of  the 
Bosphorus.  Vladimir  meanwhile  had  rallied  his  fleet  and 
turned  fiercely  at  bay,  destroying  twenty-five  of  the  Byzantine 
vessels  and  killing  their  admiral.  Consoled  by  this  success 
he  returned  home,  carrying  with  him  many  prisoners.  The 
division  which  had  attempted  the  land  passage  was  less 
happy  ;  overpowered  by  a  large  Greek  force  near  Varna, 
the  survivors  were  taken  captive  to  Constantinople,  where 
many  of  them,  including  the  brave  boyarin,  were  deprived 
of  their  eyesight. 

This  was  the  last  of  the  series  of  expeditions  made  by 
the  early  rulers  of  Russia  against  Constantinople,  expeditions 
which  suggest  a  parallel  with  those  against  Rome  which 
exercised  such  a  fatal  fascination  over  the  Saxon  and 
Franconian  Emperors  of  Germany  at  the  same  period.  Not 
for  many  a  long  century  were  the  Russian  arms  to  push 
again  across  the  blue  waters  of  the  Danube  into  the  land 
of  their  desire.  In  1046  peace  was  formally  concluded 
between  the  two  countries,  and  the  blinded  prisoners  were 
allowed  to  return  to  their  native  land. 

The  remaining  years   of  Yaroslav  were  years  of  peace 


II  THE  BUILDING  OF  KIEVIAN  RUSSIA  51 


and  prosperity  within  his  realm.  Allied  with  the  Court  of 
Poland  by  the  double  marriage  of  his  sister  with  Duke 
Kazimir,  and  of  the  latter's  sister  with  his .  second  son 
Isiaslav,  he  was  in  like  manner  connected  with  the  house 
of  Arpad  by  the  marriage  of  his  youngest  daughter  Anastasia 
with  Andrew  I.  of  Hungary  ;  with  Harold  the  Brave,  after- 
wards King  of  Norway,  who  espoused  his  eldest  daughter 
Elizabeth  ;  and  with  the  royal  family  of  France  by  the 
marriage  of  his  second  daughter  Anne  with  Henri  I.  And 
not  only  by  court  alliances  was  the  Russia  of  this  period 
connected  with  the  other  states  of  Europe.  Commerce  had 
made  great  strides  in  the  last  half-hundred  years,  and  Kiev, 
in  the  zenith  of  her  fortunes,  attracted  traders  from  many 
lands  ;  besides  her  300  churches  she  had  8  markets,  there 
were  separate  quarters  for  Hungarian,  Hollandish,  German, 
and  Skandinavian  merchants,  and  the  Dniepr  was  constantly 
covered  with  cargo  vessels.  Novgorod  was  another  important 
centre  of  trade  and  foreign  intercourse.  A  more  convenient 
medium  of  exchange,  always  a  stimulating  factor  in  commerce, 
was  gradually  superseding  the  hides  and  pelts  which  were 
the  earliest  articles  of  sale  and  barter  ;  the  first  step  had 
been  to  substitute  leather  tokens  cut  from  the  skins  them- 
selves, called  kounas,  from  kounitza,  a  marten  (being  generally 
cut  from  a  marten  pelt).  These  were  replaced,  as  silver 
grew  more  plentiful  in  the  country,  by  coins  of  that  metal, 
stamped  with  rude  representations  of  the  reigning  prince. 

Following  the  time -hallowed  custom  of  his  forbears, 
Yaroslav  in  his  last  days  divided  the  lands  of  his  realm 
among  his  surviving  sons.  (Vladimir,  the  eldest,  had  died 
in  1052.)  Isiaslav  became,  after  his  father's  death.  Grand 
Prince  of  Kiev,  his  four  brothers  being  settled  respectively 
in  the  sub-provinces  of  Tchernigov,  Pereyaslavl,  Smolensk, 
and  Volhynia.  Polotzk  was  still  held  by  the  other  branch 
of  the  family.  Yaroslav  died  at  Voutchigorod  on  the  19th 
February  1054.  On  a  winter's  day  his  corpse  was  borne  in 
mournful  procession  along  the  snow-clad  road  to  Kiev,  there 
to  rest  in  a  marble  tomb  in  a  side  chapel  of  the  Cathedral 
of  S.  Sofia. 


52  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap,  ii 


Under  Yaroslav  Russia  enjoyed  a  prosperity  and  position 
that  was  lost  in  the  partitions  and  discords  of  his  successors, 
and  this  circumstance  was  probably  responsible  for  the 
somewhat  flattering  estimate  that  was  formed  of  his  character 
by  subsequent  chroniclers.^  As  patron  of  Kiev  and  benefactor 
to  the  Church  he  was  naturally  glorious  and  good  in  the 
eyes  of  Nestor,  and  by  some  writers  he  has  been  styled  "  the 
Russian  Charlemagne,"  on  account  of  the  code  of  laws  which 
he  formulated  for  his  country.  Concerning  his  piety,  he 
lived  in  an  age  when  much  giving  from  the  State  treasury 
to  church  or  monastery  counted  for  such,  and  it  is  recorded 
of  him  that  his  dying  words  charged  his  sons  to  "  treat  each 
other  as  brothers "  and  "  have  great  tenderness "  one  for 
another.  His  own  brother  still  lay  in  the  prison  that  was 
his  living  tomb  for  over  a  score  of  years. 

1  Karamzin,  Solov'ev,  Schiemann,  Rambaud,  Chronique  de  Nestor. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    FEUDS    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    RURIK 

The  history  of  Russia  during  the  next  two  hundred  years  is 
little  more  than  a  long  chronicle  of  aimless  and  inconsequent 
feuds  between  the  multiple  Princes  of  the  Blood — "the 
much-too-many  "  of  their  crowded  little  world — overlaid  and 
beclouded  with  strange-sounding  names  recurring  and  clashing 
in  a  luxuriant  tangle  of  pedigree,  and  further  embarrassed 
by  a  perpetual  shifting  and  reshifting  of  the  family  ap- 
panages. Here  and  there  the  figure  of  some  particular  kniaz 
stands  out  for  a  space  from  the  ravelled  skein  that  the  old 
historians  painstakingly  wove  upon  the  loom  of  their 
chronicles,  but  for  the  most  part  the  student  searches  in  vain 
for  glimpses  of  the  real  life-story  of  Russia  during  this  barren 
and  over-trampled  period. 

The  city  of  Kiev,  carrying  with  it  the  dignity  of  the 
Grand-princedom  and  the  nominal  authority  over  the  whole 
realm,  was  the  key-stone  of  the  body  politic  as  Yaroslav  left 
it,  but  the  loosely-ordered  theory  of  succession  which  obtained 
in  the  Slavonic  world  led  to  a  perpetual  dislocation  of  this 
local  and  ill-defined  supremacy,  and  robbed  the  arch-throne 
of  any  chance  of  making  good  its  claimed  dominion  over 
the  other  units  of  the  State.  Under  Isiaslav  I.  and  the 
brothers,  son,  and  nephew  who  succeeded  him  in  promiscuous 
order,^  Kiev  became  merely  a  focussing  point  for  the  pro- 
fusion of  quarrels  and  petty  revolutions  which  were  set  in 
perpetual  motion  by  the  restless  ambition  of  the  neighbouring 
Princes  of  Polotzk,  Smolensk,  and  Tchernigov.  The  last- 
^  See  Table  I.  for  Grand  Princes  of  Kiev. 


54 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


named  province  passed  into  the  possession  of  Oleg  Sviato- 
slavitch^  (nephew  of  Isiaslav),  and  from  him  sprang  the 
house  of  Olgovitch,  which  held  the  fief  of  Tchernigov  for 
many  generations  and  convulsed  South  Russia  again  and 
again  in  its  attempts  to  grasp  the  throne  of  Kiev,  this 
hereditary  feud  of  the  Olgovitchie  with  the  branch  of 
Vsevolod  being  the  most  understandable  feature  of  the  pre- 
vailing strife-storms  of  the  period.  A  factor  which  might 
have  been  supposed  to  make  for  unity  and  self-help  among 
the  detached  Russian  rulers,  but  which  instead  frequently 
served  to  complicate  the  distresses  of  the  country,  was  the 
appearance  in  the  south-east,  shortly  after  the  death  of 
Yaroslav,  of  a  new  enemy,  rising  phcenix-like  on  the  ruin  of 
the  Petchenigs.  The  Polovtzi,  or  Kumans,  a  nomad  race  of 
Turko  origin,  were  even  fiercer  and  more  cruel  than  the  tribe 
they  had  replaced,  and  their  fighting  value  was  such  that 
the  princes,  though  frequently  banding  in  short-lived  leagues 
against  them,  were  often  tempted  to  invoke  their  aid  in 
pressing  family  quarrels,  and  even  stooped  to  mate  with 
their  chieftain  women — a  woful  falling  away  from  the  bridal 
splendours  of  the  Court  of  Yaroslav. 

During  the  reigns  of  Isiaslav's  three  immediate  successors 
two  figures  stand  out  prominently  amid  the  bewildering 
plurality  of  princes,  respectively  playing  the  part  of  good 
and  evil  geniuses  of  the  country.  Vladimir  Monomachus,  son 
of  Vsevolod,  sometime  Prince  of  Kiev,  fulfils  the  former 
function  with  commendable  assiduity,  righting  wrongs  and 
averting  national  disasters  after  the  most  approved  chivalric 
pattern,  and  ever  ready  to  improve  the  occasion  by  the 
delivery  of  irreproachable  sentiments  —  if  these  were  not 
fathered  upon  him  by  the  chroniclers  of  the  time.  Through- 
out the  turmoil  which  distinguishes  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century  he  hovers  in  the  background,  like  the  falcon  of  Ser 
Federigo,  with  his  air  of  "  if  anything  is  wanting  I  am  here." 
The  other  side  of  the  picture — and  picture  it  doubtless  is,  in 
a  large  measure,  painted  by  the  prejudice  and  ornamented 
by  the  fancies  of  the  old-time  annalists — is  the  wayward 
^  The  affix  vitch  signifies  son  of:  Sviatoslavitch — son  of  Sviatoslav. 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  55 


Prince  of  Polotzk/  ever  ready  to  devise  new  troubles  for  his 
groaning  country,  always  managing  to  elude  the  consequences 
of   his    transgressions    against    the    peace.       Naturally    he 
achieves  the  reputation  of  having  more  than  human  powers  ; 
rumour   has    it    that   he   traversed    the    road    from    Kiev  to 
Tmoutorakan  in  a  single  night,  and  the  unholy  wight  could 
in  Kiev  hear  the  clock  of  the  Sofia  church  at  Polotzk  striking 
the  hours.       The  suddenness  with  which  he  would  appear 
before  the  gates  of  some  distant  town  gave  rise,  no  doubt,  to 
the  belief  that  he  assumed  the  form  of  a  wolf  on  these  occa- 
sions :  "  He  sped,  in  blue  obscurity  hidden,  as  a  wild  beast, 
at  midnight  to  Bielgrad,  at  morning  .  .  .  opened  the  gate 
of  Novgorod,  destroyed  the  glory  of  Yaroslav,  and  hunted  as 
a  wolf  from   Dudutki   to    Nemiga."  ^     Wonders  of  an  evil 
nature    were    reported    from    his    capital,    where    malevolent 
spirits  rode  on  horseback  through  the  streets  day  and  night, 
wounding    the    inhabitants.       What    with    the    intermittent 
attacks  of  the    princes  of  the   house  of  Yaroslav  and    the 
eerie  enemies  within  the  town,  it  must  have  required  excep- 
tional nerve  to  be  a  citizen  of  Polotzk.      In  iioi  closes  the 
eventful  life  of  the  wehr-wolf  prince,  who  makes  his  last  lone 
journey  into  the  "  blue  obscurity,"  where  perhaps  his  "  white 
soul "  yet  hies  in  wolf's  gallop  over  the  eternal  plains. 

Four  years  earlier  (1097)  an  interesting  gathering  had 
taken  place  of  the  numerous  princes  of  the  line  of  Yaroslav, 
who  were  assembled  together  in  the  town  of  Lubetch,  "  on 
the  same  carpet,"  and  swore  on  the  Holy  Cross  to  live  in 
peace  and  friendship  with  each  other.  With  a  limited 
number  of  fiefs  and  a  superabundant  supply  of  Princes  of 
the  Blood,  many  of  whom  were  necessarily  in  the  position 
of  have-nots,  it  was  scarcely  likely  that  the  public  pact 
would  be  very  long-lived,  but  a  decent  lull  might  have  been 
looked  for  before  the  outbreak  of  new  dissensions.  David 
Igorovitch,  cousin  of  the  Grand  Prince  Sviatopalk,  went 
straight  from  the  council  of  peace,  from  the  carpet-in-common 
and  the  bekissed  cross,  to  stir  up  fresh  strife  in   the  West 


^  Vseslav  Briatcheslavitch. 
'•^  "The  Song  of  the  Expedition  of  Igor." 


56 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAX  EMPIRE  chap. 


Russian  country,  and  the  series  of  wars  which  ensued  was 
remarkable  for  the  armed  participation  of  Kalman,  King  of 
Hungary.  The  reason  for  this  foreign  intermeddhng,  which 
ended  in  signal  discomfiture  and  a  hurried  retreat  across  the 
Karpathians,  is  not  obvious.  "  What  were  the  causes  of  this 
war,"  wrote  a  Hungarian  annalist.^  "  are  not  to  be  ascertained." 
It  was,  however,  the  opening  of  a  long  chapter  of  western 
encroachments  in  the  affairs  of  the  Red  Russian  provinces, 
while  in  the  steppe-lands  of  the  south,  Tmoutorakan  and 
other  territory  slipped  into  the  hands  of  the  Kuman 
tribesmen. 
1113  The  accession  of  Vladimir  Monomachus  to  the  dignity 
of  VeHkie  Kniaz  gave  Kiev  for  the  time  being  greater  im- 
portance as  the  sovereign  State,  since  the  lands  of  P^r^ya- 
slavl,  Novgorod,  and  Souzdal  were  also  held  in  the  monarch's 
family.  Under  his  son  Mstislav  the  Novgorodskie  pushed 
their  arms  into  Livland  and  took  the  town  of  Odenpay 
(bear's  head),  and  later  these  hardy  and  enterprising  folk 
swept  the  desolate  Finnish  northlands  into  their  wide 
dominion.  The  character  of  Vladimir  (who  died  in  1125, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Mstislav)  exercised  a  lively  hold  on 
the  imaginations  of  his  countr}*men,  and  he  is  yet  reckoned 
among  those  sovereigns  "  whose  earthly  diadems  beamed  in 
anticipation  of  the  crowns  they  were  to  receive  in  Paradise." 
This  much  may  fairly  be  said  of  him,  that  during  his  career, 
and  particularly  during  his  reign,  Russia  enjoyed  a  greater 
measure  of  cohesion  than  she  experienced  under  his  im- 
mediate successors,  and  that  this  was  in  no  small  measure 
the  outcome  of  a  carefully  thought-out  and  scrupulously 
applied  policy.  But  the  greatest  monument  to  Vladimir's 
memory  is  the  parchment  document  which  he  left  for  the 
guidance  of  his  sons,  and  which  is  preserved  in  the  archives 
of  his  country  as  a  precious  historical  relic 

"  Bear  in  mind  that  a  man  ought  always  to  be  employed" 
is  one  of  the  admonitions  of  this  remarkable  homily,  though 
if  the  persons  addressed  imitated  the  example  therein  dis- 
played it  was  scarcely  needed.     "  For  my  part  I   accustomed 

^  Georg  Pray. 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  57 


myself  to  do  everything  that  I  might  have  ordered  my 
servants  to  do.  Night  and  day,  summer  and  winter,  I  was 
perpetually  moving  about.  I  wished  to  see  everything  with 
my  own  eyes.  ...  I  made  it  my  duty  to  inspect  the 
churches  and  the  sacred  ceremonies  of  religion,  as  well  as 
the  management  of  my  property,  my  stables,  and  the  eagles 
and  hawks  of  my  hunting  establishment.  I  have  made 
eighty-three  campaigns  and  many  expeditions.  I  concluded 
nineteen  treaties  with  the  Polovtzi.  I  took  captive  one 
hundred  of  their  princes,  whom  I  set  free  again  ;  and  I  put 
two  hundred  of  them  to  death  by  throwing  them  into  rivers. 
No  one  has  ever  travelled  more  rapidly  than  I  have  done. 
Setting  out  in  the  morning  from  Tchernigov,  I  have  arrived 
at  Kiev  before  the  hour  of  vespers."  (A  feat  surpassed  by 
the  goblin-post  of  the  Prince  of  Polotzk.)  "  In  hunting 
amidst  the  thickest  forests,  how  many  times  have  I  myself 
caught  wild  horses  and  bound  them  together  ?  How  many 
timies  have  I  been  thrown  down  by  buffaloes,  wounded  by 
the  antlers  of  stags,  and  trodden  under  the  feet  of  elks  ?  A 
furious  boar  rent  my  sword  from  my  baldrick  ;  my  saddle 
was  torn  to  pieces  by  a  bear  ;  this  terrible  beast  rushed 
upon  my  steed,  whom  he  threw  down  upon  me.  But  the 
Lord  protected  me." 

There  is  a  suspicion  of  exaggeration  in  the  number  of 
campaigns  enumerated,  besides  "  many  expeditions,"  and  the 
hunting  reminiscences  are  almost  too  full  of  incident  ;  neither 
do  wild  horses,  as  a  rule,  inhabit  the  thickest  forests. 
Allowing  for  these  enlargements  of  old  age,  however,  the 
outlines  are  probably  true. 

"  Oh,  my  children,"  the  testator  continues,  "  fear  neither 
death  nor  wild  beasts.  Trust  in  Providence  ;  it  far  surpasses 
all  human  precautions."  In  order,  presumably,  not  to  risk 
all  his  eggs  in  one  basket,  he  qualifies  this  pious  aphorism 
with  the  follovvinp;  excellent  advice  :  "  Never  retire  to  rest 
till  you  have  posted  your  guards.  Never  lay  aside  your 
arms  while  you  are  within  reach  of  the  enemy.  And,  to 
avoid  being  surprised,  always  be  early  on  horseback." 

With    the   disappearance   of  Vladimir   Russian   political 


58  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

life  lapsed  into  the  distracting  turmoil  of  family  feuds,  em- 
bittered now  afresh  by  the  jealousies  of  the  elder  and  younger 
branches  of  his  descendants,  in  addition  to  the  existing 
elements  of  discord  furnished  by  the  houses  of  Tchernigov 
and    Galitz   and    the   sporadic    turbulence  of  the  people  of 

Novgorod. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  and   contrast  the  condition 
of  the  Russian  State  at  this  period   with  that  of  the  neigh- 
bouring Germanic  Empire,  whose  constitution  and  scheme  of 
government  was  not  widely  different,  and  to  examine  the 
possible  causes  of  the  decay  of  the  Grand-princely  power  in 
the  one,  and  the  survival  of  the   Imperial   ascendency  in  the 
other.      The  Western   Empire  had,  like   Russia,  her   periods 
of  internal  confusion,  but  however  weak  or   unfortunate  an 
individual  Kaiser  might  be,  his  title  and  office  always  carried 
a  certain  weight  of  authority,  a  certain  glamour  of  reverence 
with  it,  while  in  the  Eastern  State   it   is  sometimes  difficult 
to  remember  who  was  at  any  given   time  in   possession   of 
the  arch-throne  of  Kiev.      Probably   the  greater  stability  of 
German  institutions  was    due  to  their  greater  complexity  ; 
side   by  side  with    the   oligarchy   of  sovereign    Dukes    and 
Margraves    there  had    grown  up,  fostered   by  the  sagacious 
foresight  of  successive   Emperors,  a  crop  of  free  cities  and 
burghs,  enjoying   a    large    measure    of  independence,  while 
another  element  was  introduced   by  the  extensive  temporal 
possessions   and    powers  of  many  of  the   German   prelates. 
These  interwoven  and  antagonistic   interests  were  naturally 
fertile  of  disputes  and  petty  conflicts,  in  which  events  appeal 
was  sure  to  be  made,  sooner  or  later,  to  the  Emperor,  whose 
intervention   was    seldom   fruitless  ;    for  where  a  man,  or  a 
community,  had  many  possible  enemies,  it  was   less  easy  to 
defy  the  sovereign  power.      If,  therefore,  each  little  fragment 
of  the  State  was  a  law  unto  itself,  the   final   supremacy  of 
the  Emperor  was  always  in  evidence,  and   in   the  same  way 
some   overweening   vassal    preparing    to    wage    war   on    his 
sovereign  liege  might  have  his  hand  stayed  by  the  irritating 
incursion  of  the  Herrschaft  of  a  mitred  abbot  or  an  aggrieved 
Burg  upon  his  own  dominions.      In   the   Russian   Weal,  on 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  KURIK  59 


the  contrary,  no  such  delicately  adjusted  conditions  existed. 
With  the  exception  of  Velikie  Novgorod,  nothing  was  inde- 
pendent besides  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Rurik  ;  towns, 
clergy,  and  boyarins  "  went  with  "  the  various  appanages  to 
which  they  belonged,  and  shared  the  fortunes  of  the   prince 
who  for  the  time  being  ruled  over  them.      Hence  there  was 
nothing  beyond   an  empty  title  and   the  control  of  an   un- 
certain  quantity  of  treasure  to  advance  the   Grand   Prince 
above  the  standing  of  his  brothers  and  cousins.      In  conse- 
quence of  this  weakness  of  the  central  authority  it  follows 
that  there  was  little  to  bind  the  mass  together  in  a  cohesive 
whole.    Besides  the  kinship  of  the  princes  there  were,  perhaps, 
only  two  elements  which  prevented  a  splitting  asunder  of 
the  federation  :  one  was  the  physical  aspect  of  the  country, 
which  presented  no  natural  divisions  which  might  have  been 
resolved   into  political  ones.      As  certainly  as  Denmark  was 
destined  to  break  away,  in   spite  of  artificial  acts  of  union, 
such  as  that  of  Kalmar,  from  the  other  Skandinavian  lands, 
so  certainly  was  Russia  likely  to  remain  united.      The  wide 
plains,  intersected  by  far-winding  rivers,  offered   no  obvious 
barriers  which  might  have  marked   off  a  separate  kingdom 
of  Tchernigov  or  Polotzk,  and  each  district  was  too  dependent 
on  the  others  to  become  permanently  estranged.      The  other 
factor  which  made  for  unity  was  the  bond  of  a  common, 
and  as  regards  their  western   neighbours,  a  distinct  religion. 
The  Greek-Christian  faith,  with  all  its  attendant  ceremonials 
and    mysteries,  had    taken    deep    root    among  the   Slavs  of 
Russia,  and  had  assimilated   itself  with  the  national   life  of 
the  people.      The  beauties  of  the  old   cathedrals  of  S.  Sofia 
at  Kiev,  S.  John  Theologus  at  Rostov,  and   S.   Dimitri  at 
Vladimir,  bore  evidence  of  the  care  that  was  lavished  on  the 
decoration    of   these    temples    of    Christian    worship.       The 
Metropolitan    of    Kiev,   as    Primate    over    all    the    Russian 
churches,  served  as  a  link   with  the  capital   city  which  the 
Grand  Prince  did  not  always  supply. 

Novgorod,  which  has  been  mentioned  as  an  exception  to 
the  state  of  subserviency  prevalent  among  the  other  Russian 
towns,  derived  her  strength  and  importance  from  her  situation, 


6o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


which  commanded  both  the  Baltic  and  the  Russian  overland 
trade.  Although  the  Hansa  League  had  not  yet  taken 
definite  shape,  the  elements  of  the  later  organisation  were 
already  in  existence.  The  commercial  life  of  the  Baltic 
centred  in  Wisby,  capital  of  the  island  of  Gothland,  and  to 
this  convenient  meeting-place  came,  twice  a  year,  German, 
Swedish,  Russian,  Danish,  and  Wendish  merchants  to  ex- 
change their  various  wares  and  supply  the  needs  of  their 
respective  trade-circles.  After  the  Wisby  markets  were  over 
many  of  the  traders  from  Lubeck,  Hamburg,  Bremen,  etc., 
made  their  way  to  Novgorod,  where  they  early  possessed  a 
factory  and  a  separate  place  of  worship,  even  as  the 
Xovgorodskie,  since  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  centurj-, 
had  their  church  and  quarter  at  Wisby.  The  intercourse 
with  enterprising  merchant  folk  from  other  lands — and 
merchants  needed  to  be  adventurous  in  those  days — infused 
a  spirit  of  energy'  and  independence  into  the  inhabitants  of 
Novgorod,  while  the  wealth  at  their  disposal  enabled  them 
to  extend  their  domination  far  over  the  bleak,  but  by  no 
means  barren,  northlands  of  Russia,  even  to  the  further  side 
of  the  Ourals.  This  extensive  over- lordship,  again,  gave 
them  control  of  many  sources  of  commerce,  and  the  produce 
of  Arctic  seas  and  sub-Arctic  forests  filtered  through  their 
hands  into  the  channels  of  Baltic  trade.  Walrus  teeth,  the 
blubber  oil  from  seals,  and  the  down  of  sea -haunting  birds 
formed  the  harvest  of  the  frozen  ocean  ;  forest  and  lake 
furnished  their  markets  with  furs,  raw  leather,  tallow,  fish, 
and  tar  ;  cultivated  lands  yielded  fla.x  and  hemp,  honey  and 
wax — the  latter  an  important  commodity  in  the  times  when 
the  Church  kept  tapers  burning  day  and  night  in  thousands 
of  shrines  throughout  the  greater  part  of  Europe.  In 
exchange  for  these  products  the  merchants  of  W' isby  and  of 
the  German  "  Hof "  at  Novgorod  bartered  metal  wares  and 
manufactured  goods.  Of  raw  metals  came  tin  from  the 
celebrated  mines  of  Cornwall,  copper  from  the  Swedish 
uplands,  and  iron  from  Bohemia  and  the  Netherlands. 
Spanish  lead  found  its  way  through  Bruges  and  Antwerp.^ 
*  N.  G.  Riesenkampff,  Der  Deutuhe  Hof  zu  Ncrwgorod, 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RUE  IK  6i 


Thus  Novgorod  was  the  staple  of  a  flourishing  and  far- 
reaching  trade,  even  though  the  rise  of  the  Italian  maritime 
republics  had  in  a  large  measure  diverted  the  commerce  of 
the  East  from  its  old  Russian  waterway,  and  the  wealth  and 
importance  of  this  world-faring  traffic  took  the  city  out  of  the 
limitations  oi  the  Russian  realm,  even  as  Lubeck  and  her 
sister  towns  stood  beyond  the  bonds  of  the  Empire.  To  the 
other  Russian  cities  their  respective  rulers  were  the  mainspring 
of  their  being,  and  each  prince  might  have  locally  adapted 
the  boast  of  the  great  Louis  ;  to  the  Novgorodskie  their 
prince  was  only  an  incident  in  a  busy  existence.  This  spirit 
of  liberty  and  impatience  found  vigorous  expression  in  the 
year  1 138  when  the  citizens  of  Novgorod,  with  those  of  the 
subject  towns  of  Pskov  and  Ladoga,  in  Vetche  assembled, 
solemnly  deposed  their  prince  on  the  following  grounds  : 
that  he  had  no  care  for  the  poorer  people  ;  that  he  only 
loved  pleasures,  falcons,  and  dogs  ;  that  he  had  coveted  the 
government  of  Pereyaslavl ;  that  in  a  battle  mth  the 
Souzdalians  he  had  been  the  first  to  leave  the  field  ;  that  he 
had  no  fixed  policy,  but  was  at  times  on  the  side  of  the 
house  of  Tchemigov,  at  times  on  the  side  of  its  enemies. 
The  citizens  had  a  quaint  and  efiective  way  of  dealing  with 
a  troublesome  minority'  in  carrjnng  through  their  frequent 
prince -purgings.  According  to  an  old  Slavonic  custom 
(retained  in  Poland  till  her  downfall^,  the  decisions  of  the 
Vetche  or  the  Diet  had  to  be  of  one  voice  ;  however,  "  the 
majority  had  the  resource  of  drowning  the  minority  in  the 
Volkof,'"  ^  and  the  bridge  over  that  river  was  not  unseldom 
the  scene  of  violent  party  strife.  The  great  bell  of  Yaroslav 
would  clang  out  the  curfew  of  the  dethroned  kniaz,  who  was 
thenceforth  "  shown  the  wa\'  "  out  of  his  erstwhile  principality. 
On  an  occasion  when  the  Grand  Prince  Sviatopalk  II.  wished 
to  foist  his  son  on  the  people  of  Novgorod,  the  elders  of  the 
city  grimly  sent  him  word  to  keep  the  young  prince  at  home, 
"  unless  he  has  a  head  to  spare." 

\\'ith  the  onward  march  of  days  and  deeds  in  the  stormv 
times  of  the  twelfth  century  two  facts,  indeed,  begin  to  stand 

^  Rambaud,  History  of  Ruisia. 


62 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


forth.      One    is    the    waning    power    and    import    of    Kiev, 
consequent  on  the  many  changes  of  masters  to  which  she 
was  subject ;    "  the  Mother  of  Russian   cities "   passed   into 
the  keeping  of  one  prince  after  another,  like  a  dainty  piece 
of  carrion  dropped  and  snatched  and  fought  over  by  a  parcel 
of   kites  or  crows.      Side  by  side  with  this  decline  of  the 
southern  city  is  to  be  marked  the  silent  growth  of  a  new 
principality    in    the    lands    of    the    north-east,    where    Urii 
"  Dolgoroukie "  (the  Long-armed),  son   of   Vladimir  Mono- 
machus,  had  nursed  the  savage,  forest-choked  marchland  of 
Souzdal  into  a  well-ordered   province,  enjoying  from  its  very 
remoteness  and  seclusion  a  domestic  calm  which  was  to  be 
found  nowhere  else  in  the  wide  Russian  realm.      Among  the 
towns  which  he  founded,  or  advanced   from   the  position  of 
tribal  villages,  was  one  on  the  banks  of  the  Moskva,  to  which 
was  given   the  name  of  the  river  that  watered  it,  a  name  to 
be  one  day  of  first  importance  in  Russian   history.      On  the 
death  of  Urii  (i  1 57)  his  son  Andrei,  albeit  one  of  a  numerous 
family,    succeeded     him    in    the    undivided    sovereignty    of 
Souzdal.      Turning  his  back  on   glittering   but    unprofitable 
Kiev,  with  its  thousand  shrines  and  general  odour  of  sanctity 
and  its  unhealthy  political  atmosphere,  he  established  himself 
at  Vladimir-on-the-Kliasma,   strong   in   the   possession   of  a 
bejewelled   ikon  of  the  Virgin,  of  Greek   manufacture — if  it 
were   not,   as   was   asserted,   the   handiwork   of  the  Apostle 
Luke.       From     this    vantage  -  ground     of    possession     and 
authority   the   wary   kniaz   proceeded    to   sweep   away  with 
unsparing    hand    the    gaping    brood    of    his    brothers    and 
nephews,   who  were   exiled    wholesale,    together    with    such 
boyarins  as  were  suspected  of   favouring    a  splitting-up  of 
Andrei's  dominion.      The  banished   Urievitch  princes  retired 
to  Constantinople,  where  they  were  honourably  received   by 
the  Greek  Emperor   Manuel,  who,  amid   the  vigorous   wars 
which  he  carried  on  with  most  of  his  neighbours,  maintained 
terms   of  friendship   with  the   princes    of    Russia.      Shortly 
after  this    state-stroke  the    Prince  of  Souzdal   became   em- 
broiled with  the  turbulent  Novgorodskie,  whose  newly-elected 
Prince  Roman   was  son  of  the  then  Velikie  Kniaz  of  Kiev. 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  63 


Andrei  was   minded  to  show  who  really  was   master  in  the 
Northern    Russian    world,    and  turned    his   arms,    not   upon 
Novgorod,    but    upon     Kiev.       Against     the    devoted    city 
gathered,  in  obedience  to  the  behest  of  Andrei,  a  mighty  host 
of  princes,   with   their  boyarins  and   followers  ;   Mstislav  of 
Souzdal,  Roman  of  Smolensk,  Vseslav  of  Polotzk,  Oleg  of 
Sieversk,   the    Rostislavitches,    and    many    another,   banded  1169 
themselves  together,  under  the  leadership  of  the  first-named, 
to  assist  at  the  death  of  a  fiction.      The   Grand  Prince  en- 
trenched  himself  in  his  capital   and   defended   the  walls  for 
two  days  against  the  assaults  of  his  enemies.      On   the  8th 
March  the  walls  were  stormed  and  the  "  Mother  of  Russian 
cities "  was   given  over  to  sack  and   pillage.      In   one  wild 
moment  all  the  reverence  and  religious  piety  of  the  Slavonic 
nature  was  scattered  to  the  winds,  and  churches,  monasteries, 
and  the  cathedrals  of  S.   Sofia  and   the    Dime    shared    the 
general  disaster.      Sacrilegious  hands  bore  gleefully  through 
the  roaring  streets  a  spoil  of  holy  ikons,  illuminated  missals, 
crosses,  priestly  robes,  and  all  the  trappings  of  an  outraged 
religion  ;  even  the  bells  were  torn  down  from  their  campaniles 
to  serve  as  plunder  for  the  victorious  invaders. 

Kiev  still  existed  as  a  city,  but  on  her  Golden  Gate  the 
conquerors  might  fitly  have  hewed  the  epitaph,  "  Ichabod. 
Thy  glory  is  departed  from  thee." 

The  Grand  Prince  made  his  escape  from  the  toils  of  his 
enemies,  and  one  of  the  sons  of  Urii  succeeded  to  what  was 
left  of  the  submerged  dignity;  but  the  real  centre  of  authority 
had  shifted.  Souzdal  extended  its  influence  over  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  Russian  land  ;  the  Princes  of  Galitz  and 
Tchernigov  and  the  republic  of  Novgorod  alone  maintained 
their  independence.  The  latter  government,  indeed,  despite 
the  internal  disorders  with  which  it  was  from  time  to  time 
afflicted,  had  risen  to  a  power  which  might  well  cry  halt  to 
the  most  ambitious  potentate.  Not  only  had  it  held  its  own 
against  the  leagued  princes  of  Northern  Russia,  but  it  had 
valiantly  repelled  the  onslaught  of  a  foreign  enemy.  The 
union  of  the  crowns  of  Sweden  and  Gothland,  the  pact 
between  the  houses  of  Swerker  and  Jeswar,  and  the  gradual 


64  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

dying  out  of  the  pagan  minority  had  given  the  Swedes  com- 
parative domestic  quiet,  and  at  the  same  time  leisure  to  turn 
their  attention  to  attacks  on  their  neighbours.  Hence  it 
was  that  Karl  VII.,  in  the  year  1164  (while  Sviatoslav  yet 
reigned  at  Novgorod),  invaded  the  Russian  northlands  and 
besieged  Ladoga,  which  was  defended  by  the  citizens  with 
great  spirit.  The  arrival  of  Sviatoslav  with  the  Posadnik 
Zakharie  and  the  Novgorodskie  forces  was  followed  by  the 
complete  defeat  of  the  Swedish  host,  only  a  remnant  of  which, 
according  to  the  city  Chronicles,  succeeded  in  making  good 
its  escape.  This  exploit  gives  some  idea  of  the  power  and 
position  of  Velikie  Novgorod,  which  at  this  period  matches 
the  standing  of  Lubeck  in  the  days  of  the  Kaiser  Karl  IV. 
Against  so  dangerous  a  rival  it  was  inevitable  that  Andrei, 
dreaming  of  autocracy  300  years  before  its  time,  should 
bend  the  whole  crushing  weight  of  his  resources  and  influence, 
and  seek  to  whelm  Novgorod  in  the  same  humiliation  that 
had  befallen  Kiev.  The  inhabitants  of  the  threatened  city 
saw  an  ominous  league  of  their  enemies  gathering  together  ; 
the  Princes  of  Smolensk,  Polotzk,  Mourom,  and  Riazan  joined 
their  forces  to  those  of  Mstislav  Andreivitch,  the  conqueror 
of  Kiev,  under  whose  banner  marched  the  men  of  Souzdal, 
Rostov,  Vladimir,  and  Bielozersk.  At  the  head  of  the 
citizens  stood  their  Kniaz,  Roman,  the  Posadnik  Yakun,  and 
the  Archbishop  Ivan.  These  prepared  by  every  means  in 
their  power  to  resist  the  formidable  army  whose  skirmishers 
were  ravaging  the  country  for  miles  around  and  lighting  the 
winter  sky  with  the  fires  of  hundreds  of  blazing  villages. 
The  doubt  voiced  by  a  poet  of  a  later  century — 

Though  kneeUng  nations  watch  and  yearn, 
Does  the  Primordial  Purpose  turn  ? 

found  no  expression  in  the  minds  of  these  early  Russians,  in 
whose  civil  discords  the  members  of  the  Holy  Family  of 
heaven  were  supposed  to  take  as  keen  an  interest  as  the 
gods  of  Olympus  in  the  skirmishes  round  Troy.  When  the 
1170  attack  closed  in  upon  the  city  the  Archbishop,  attended  by 
his  clergy,  carried  round  the  ramparts,  during  the  thick  of 
the  fight,  a  standard  with  a  representation   of   the   Virgin. 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  65 


An  impious  arrow  struck  the  sainted  ikon,  which  thereupon 
turned  its  face  towards  Novgorod  and  let  fall  a  shower  of 
tears  upon  the  Archbishop  ;  this  was  too  much  for  the  nerves 
of  the  Souzdalians,  who  seemingly  were  near  enough  to 
witness  the  miracle,  and  a  headlong  flight  ensued,  in  which 
many  were  slain  and  many  taken  prisoners.  In  the  words 
of  the  Novgorodskie  Chronicle,  "You  could  get  ten  Souz- 
dalians for  a  grivna."  It  is  difficult  to  discern,  under  the 
mass  of  legend,  what  was  the  real  cause  of  this  panic.  The 
warriors  who  had  laid  ruthless  hands  on  the  hallowed  sanc- 
tuaries of  the  Russian  capital  were  not  likely  to  be  cowed 
by  a  provincial  representation  of  the  Virgin  ;  had  they  not 
their  own  apostle-wrought  ikon  of  the  Mother  of  God  at 
Vladimir  ?  Whatever  the  cause  of  defeat,  it  gave  a  serious 
check  to  Andrei's  projects  of  undisputed  supremacy.  Nov- 
gorod, however,  was  not  secure  from  the  enmity  of  the  Prince 
of  Souzdal,  from  whose  province  she  drew  her  supplies  of 
grain,  and  the  Posadnik  and  Archbishop  followed  up  their 
victory  by  timely  overtures  for  peace,  which  was  effected  by 
the  dismissal  of  Roman  and  the  subsequent  "  free  election  " 
of  a  prince  from  the  Souzdal  family.  Four  years  later  the 
dreaded  northern  Kniaz  suffered  the  penalty  of  being  in 
advance  of  his  times.  The  high  hand  with  which  he  had 
ruled  in  his  own  province  had  inspired  among  his  boyarins 
and  courtiers  a  fear  which  might  on  occasion  become  danger- 
ous. And  the  occasion  arrived,  when  one  summer's  evening  1177 
a  band  of  twenty  conspirators,  including  the  chamberlain  of 
his  household,  burst  into  the  old  man's  sleeping-chamber  in 
his  palace  at  Bogolubov  (a  suburb  of  Vladimir)  and  stabbed 
wildly  at  him  in  the  uncertain  twilight.  Favoured  by  the 
dusk  and  confusion,  Andrei  managed  to  crawl  away  into 
hiding ;  a  light  was  procured,  and  by  the  track  of  his 
streaming  wounds  he  was  hunted  down  and  the  assassins 
finished  their  task.  Vladimir,  which  he  had  raised  to  the 
position  of  his  capital  over  the  older  towns  of  Souzdal  and 
Rostov,  mourned  the  grim  fate  of  her  patron,  but  throughout 
the  rest  of  the  province  the  long -repressed  feelings  of  the 
inhabitants  ran  riot  in  bloodshed  and  pillage.     The  affrighted 

F 


66  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


clergy,  clad  in  their  priestly  vestments  and  bearing  the  sacred 
ensigns  of  their  religion,  went  in  solemn  processions  through 
the  towns,  invoking  the  assistance  of  the  Most  High  God  to 
quell  a  revolt  which  threatened  the  submersion  of  their  world. 
Andrei  had  tried  to  weld  into  a  disciplined  kingdom  materials 
that  were  as  yet  only  fitted  for  a  modified  anarchy,  tempered  by 
attachment  to  a  loosely-ordered  succession  of  princes  ;  dream- 
ing of  despotism,  he  had  at  least  died  the  death  of  a  despot. 

And  while  they  do  to  death  the  only  prince  who  had 
shown  them  the  way  to  the  safety  which  lay  in  union  and 
centralisation,  far  away  on  the  banks  of  the  Okon,  in  the 
desert  resfion  which  borders  Northern  China  and  Manchuria, 
is  growing  from  insignificance  to  an  overmastering  weight 
of  supremacy  the  tribe,  horde,  locust-swarm  of  the  swarthy 
Mongols. 

The  disorders  which  marked  the  disappearance  of  Andrei's 
overshadowing  personality  from  the  throne  of  Souzdal  were 
soothed,  after  a  long  struggle  between  his  reflucted  kinsfolk, 
by  the  final  establishment  of  Vsevolod,  brother  of  the  mur- 
dered prince,  surnamed  "  Big-nest "  in  allusion  to  his  large 
family/  Applying  himself  to  the  ordering  of  his  own  pro- 
vince, he  meddled  but  languidly  in  the  seething  troubles  of 
the  Dniepr-watered  principalities,  where  the  house  of  Olgo- 
vitch  was  enjoying  a  fitful  revival  of  importance.  A  scion 
of  that  strenuous  family  at  this  time  embarked  on  an  enter- 
prise which,  though  fruitless  from  a  military  point  of  view, 
was  crowned  with  a  halo  of  glory  and  immortalised  in  an 
epic  poem  of  great  beauty.  "  The  Song  of  the  Expedition 
of  Igor,  Prince  of  Sieverski,"  or,  more  shortly,  the  Song  of 
Igor,  one  of  the  earliest  Slavonic  folk-songs  that  has  been 
handed  down  from  the  dead  past,  has  been  translated  into 
many  languages,  but  never  before  into  English,  so  that  it 
is  well  worth  reproducing  in  part  in  a  history  of  Russian 
development.  It  deals  with  a  campaign  undertaken  by  Igor 
Sviatoslavitch,  Prince  of  Severski,  and  his  brother  Vsevolod, 
against  the  Polovtzi  in  their  own  country,  of  its  disastrous 
result,  and  the  ultimate  return  of  Igor. 

1  See  Table  III.  for  house  of  Souzdal. 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  67 

Brothers,  were  it  not  well  that  we,  after  the  old  custom,  began 
the  song  of  the  unlucky  campaign  of  Igor,  the  seed  of  Sviatoslav  ? 
That  we  celebrate  him  in  the  heroic  songs  of  our  time,  and  not  in 
the  manner  of  Boyan  ?  If  the  sage  Boyan  wished  to  tune  to  one  a 
song,  it  was  as  if  a  squirrel  sprang  up  the  tree,  or  a  gray  wolf  hied 
along  the  plain,  or  a  blue  eagle  soared  to  the  clouds.  .  .   . 

Igor  looked  forth  and  saw  that  the  sun  had  hidden  his  face, 
and  a  mist  had  enveloped  his  warriors.     Then  spoke  Igor  to  his 
army :   "  Brothers  and  soldiers,  it  is  better  to  fall  in  battle  than  to 
yield  one's  life  ;  so  will  we  mount  our  mettlesome  horses  and  gain 
the  Blue  Don  by  daylight."     Yearning  filled  the  soul  of  the  Prince, 
and  the  wish  to  see  the  noble  Don  led  him  to  forget  many  evil 
tokens.      "  I  will  break  a  lance,"  cried  he,  "  on  the  farthest  verge  of 
the  Polovtzi  land,  or  bow  my  head  with  you,  Russians,  and  with  my 
helmet  draw  water  from  the  Don."     O  Boyan,  thou  nightingale  of 
the  olden  days,  if  thou  hadst  inspired  these  warrior-bands,  alighting 
on  the  Tree  of  Thought  and  hovering  in  the  spirit  of  the  clouds, 
thou  hadst,  O  nightingale,  united  this  severed  time  (that  which  is 
Past  with  that  which  Is).  .   .  .   Not  a  storm-wind  drove  the  falcons 
over  the  wide  plain,  nor  hurried  the  flocks  of  daws  to  the  glorious 
Don.      Or  thou  mightest,  sage  Boyan,  thus  have  sung :  The  steeds 
are  neighing  this  side  the  Sula,  the  war-song  resounds  in  Kiev,  the 
trumpets  are  crashing  in  Novgorod.     The  standards  wave  in  Poutivl, 
where  awaits  Igor  his  loved  brother  Vsevolod.     And  to  him  saith 
the   bold,   war-lusting    Vsevolod,   "O   Igor,    my    only   brother,    my 
bright  Sun,  truly  are  we  twain  the  seed  of  Sviatoslav.      Brother,  let 
thy  spirited  w^ar-horses  be  saddled ;  already  are  mine  saddled  and 
waiting  at  Koursk,  and  my  Kourskies  are  right  warriors,  born  'neath 
the  blare  of  the  trumpets,  and  nurtured  at  the  point  of  the  lance. 
The  roads  are  familiar  to  them ;  they  know  the  passes,  their  bows 
are  strung,  the  quiver  is  open,  the  sabres  are  burnished,  and  they 
themselves  press  forward,  like  gray  wolves  on  the  bleak  wold,  in 
pursuit  of  honour  and  princely  renown."     Then  set  Prince  Igor  his 
foot  in  the  golden  stirrup  and  rode  forth  into  the  wide  plain.      The 
sun  blurs  the  way  through  the  gloom,  the  night  groans  in  storm  and 
wakes  the  birds,  swells  in  chorus  the  howling  of  beasts,  the  evil  Div 
shrieks  down  from  the  tree-tops  and  summons  the  strange  lands  to 
listen,  from  the  Volga,  and  the  sea-coast,  and  along  the  Sula  and  to 
the  Suroz  and  Khorsun,  to  the  idol  at  Tmoutorakan.      The  Polovtzi 
hastened    by    pathless    ways    to    the    glorious    Don ;    at    midnight 
shrieked  the  wheels  of  their  carts,  as  though   flight-circling  swans 
screamed  loud.     Igor  pressed  with  his  war-men  to  the  Don.     But 
already    the    bird    on    the    oak    warned     him     of    misfortune,    the 
wolves   set    the    ravines    in    alarm,   the    eagles  with    loud    screams 


68  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


called  hither  the  beasts  to  the  banquet,  the  foxes  barked  at  the 
purple  shields. 

O  Russian  band,  already  art  thou  this  side  the  hill ! 

Long  lasts  the  night,  the  twilight  dawn  not  yet  foretells  the 
coming  of  the  Sun,  darkness  clothes  the  fields,  the  flute  of  the 
nightingale  is  hushed,  while  the  croaking  of  the  daws  resounds,  but 
the  Russians  have  bedecked  the  stretching  plain  with  their  purple 
shields,  and  strive  after  honour  and  the  glory  of  princes. 

On  Friday  early  have  our  warriors  defeated  the  war-hordes  of 
the  Polovtzi,  and  they  thenafter  scattered  wnth  arrow-swiftness  in 
the  plain,  bearing  away  the  lovely  Polovtzi  maidens,  and  with  them 
also  gold  and  precious  silken  stuffs  ;  with  costly  rugs,  with  cloaks 
and  vestments  the  Polovtzi  strewed  the  streams,  marshes,  and 
swamps.  The  golden  standards  with  the  white  pennons,  the  purple 
horse-housings  and  the  silver  staff  fell  to  the  brave  Sviatoslavitch. 
Oleg's  brave  nest-brood  slept  on  the  field,  thenafter  they  are  flown 
afar ;  they  were  not  born  to  suffer  ill,  neither  from  falcon,  nor  spar- 
hawk,  nor  from  these,  heathen  Polovtzi,  the  black  ravens.  Gsak 
sped  like  a  gray  wolf,  and  Kontchak  followed  him  on  the  road  to 
the  glorious  Don. 

Right  early  the  other  morning  rose  a  blood-red  promise  of  the 
sun,  black  clouds  drew  in  from  the  sea,  that  would  have  darkened 
four  suns,  and  torn  were  they  by  blue  flashes  ;  there  was  brewing  a 
mighty  storm  of  thunder,  and  bolts  rained  over  the  majestic  Don  ; 
then  at  the  stream  Kayala,  by  the  mighty  Don,  lances  were  broken 
and  sabres  blunted  on  Polovtzi  helmets. 

O  Russian  band,  still  art  thou  this  side  the  hill ! 

There  blew  the  Wind  (Stribog's  grandchild)  ^  bolts  from  the  sea 
against  Igor's  brave  fighters ;  the  Earth  shuddered,  mournfully 
flowed  the  rivers,  dew-drops  spangled  the  fields,  the  banners  rustled. 

Forth  from  the  Don,  from  the  sea,  and  from  all  sides  around 
came  the  Polovtzi ;  they  surrounded  the  Russian  troop,  with  yells 
the  children  of  the  devils  filled  the  plain,  but  the  brave  Russians 
guarded  themselves  behind  the  purple  shields.  Thou  Wild- Bull 
Vsevolod,  thou  art  in  the  rank  that  is  foremost,  slinging  thy  arrows 
at  the  fighters,  and  with  thy  sword  of  steel  batterest  the  helmets, 
and  where  thou  chargest,  there  where  thy  golden  helmet  glitters, 
there  lie  the  heads  of  the  Heathen  and  the  Avaric  helmets,  smashed 
by  thy  hardened  sabre,  thou  Wild- Bull  Vsevolod,  and  there  was  thy 
grief  so  great  at  the  wound  of  thy  brother,  thou  hadst  both  honour 
and  life  forgotten,  and  the  town  of  Tchernigov,  and  the  throne  of 
thy  fathers,  even  as  the  caresses  of  thy  sweet  and  beauteous  wife 
Glebovna.  ...  So  is  it  ever  in  the  time  of  fighting  and  war,  but 
1  Stribog  was  the  Slavonic  wind-god. 


Ill 


THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  69 


never  yet  has  been  heard  of  such  a  battle  as  this ;  from  early  morn 
till  the  even,  from  eve  to  red  dawn,  nought  but  flying  arrows,  and 
the  clashing  of  sabres  on  helmets,  and  steel  lances  splintering  in  the 
far  plain  of  the  Polovtzi-land.  The  black  earth  under  the  hoofs  of 
the  horses  is  with  bones  emplanted,  which  spring  up  from  the 
Russian  soil  watered  with  blood  amid  stress  of  grievous  sorrow. 
What  is  the  stamping  I  hear?  What  is  it  I  hear  ringing  in  the 
morning  early  before  the  red  Dawn  ?  .  .  .  . 

So  for  a  day  they  fought,  and  for  two  days,  but  on  the  third, 
towards  mid-day,  sank  the  banner  of  Igor. 

There  on  the  banks  of  the  rapid  Kayala  the  brothers  were 
sundered.  .   .   . 

The  grass  drooped  its  head  in  mourning  and  the  tree  bowed 
sorrowfully  earthward.   .  .   . 

The  war  of  the  princes  against  the  Heathen  had  ceased,  for  one 
brother  saith  to  another,  "  That  belongeth  to  me,  and  this  belongeth 
also  to  me."  And  of  each  little  thing  the  princes  say,  "A  great 
matter,"  and  stir  up  strife  with  one  another,  while  on  all  sides  of 
the  Russian  land  the  warlike  heathen  press  forward. 

But  Igor's  brave  war-men  shall  never  wake  again.  .  .  .  Loudly 
weep  the  Russian  women,  "  Alas  !  that  never  more  can  our  thoughts 
to  our  dear  husbands  be  wafted,  that  our  eyes  shall  never,  never 
again  behold  them,  and  gold  and  silver  never  more  be  stored." 
And  therefore,  brothers,  Kiev  groaneth  aloud  in  sorrow  and 
Tchernigov  in  grief;  woe  streameth  through  the  land,  and  pain,  in 
full  flood,  through  Russia,  but  ever  more  and  more  were  the  princes 
growing  in  hatred,  while  the  warlike  Heathen  raged  through  the 
land,  and  from  every  holding  had  as  tribute  a  squirrel  pelt.   .   .   . 

[The  despairing  lamentations  of  the  saga  are  changed  to  rejoic- 
ing over  the  unexpected  return  of  Igor,  who  had  made  his  escape 
from  the  Polovtzi  land.] 

The  Sun  shines  in  the  heaven  since  Prince  Igor  is  on  Russian 
land.  The  maidens  sing  on  the  Danube,  and  their  voices  reach 
over  the  sea  to  Kiev.  Prince  Igor  rides  through  the  Boritchev-ford 
to  the  Holy  Mother-of-God  of  Pirogosha.  The  country  is  gladsome 
and  the  towns  rejoice.^ 

This  folk-song,  apart  from  its  intrinsic  beauty,  is  valu- 
able as  a  relic  of  Russian  thought  and  feeling  at  a  time 
when  the   old    pre-Christian    ideas  were    still   blended   with 

1  Rendered  into  English  partly  from  H.  von  Paucker's  German  translation, 
Das  Lied  7Jon  der  Heerfahrt  Igor's  Fiirsten  von  Seversk,  and  partly  from  a 
modernised  Russian  reproduction  of  the  Slavonic  text. 


70 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


the  sentiments  of  the  newer  traditions,  and  it  is  interesting 
to  mark  how  the  ghosts  and  gods  of  old  Slavonic  myth  are 
mixed  up  with  the  saints  and  virgins  of  the  Orthodox  faith. 
Not  unworthy  of  notice,  too,  are  the  sage  strictures  on  the 
poHtical  evils  of  the  day,  the  perpetual  quarrelling  among 
the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  which,  however,  continued  with 
unabated  vehemence  despite  the  common  bond  which 
existed  in  a  common  enemy.  On  the  north  and  north-east 
the  armies  of  Novgorod  and  Souzdal  extended  the  Russian 
influence  in  the  lands  of  the  Finns  and  Bulgars,  but  on 
the  south-east,  south,  and  west  occurred  encroachments 
which  the  princes  were  too  enfeebled  by  internal  feuds  to 
resist.  The  Kuman  (Polovtzi)  hordes  held  the  banks  of 
the  Dniepr  almost  up  to  the  walls  of  Kiev  and  Biel- 
gorod,  as  the  Petchenigs  had  done  before  them  ;  amid  the 
dense  forests  of  Lit'uania,  on  the  border  of  Polotzk,  was 
rising  into  importance  the  Lettish  State  which  was  to 
become  a  formidable  factor  in  Russian  and  Polish  annals  ; 
and  the  kings  of  Hungary  cast  greedy  eyes  on  the  fair 
province  of  Galitz,  held  in  the  feeble  and  precarious  grasp 
of  Vladimir,  unworthy  successor  of  a  line  of  valiant  Red 
Russian  princes. 

The  occupant  of  the  throne  of  S.  Stefan  was  not  the 
only  interested  onlooker  at  the  spectacle  of  misgovernment 
provided  by  the  Prince  of  Galitz ;  his  nearest  neighbour 
on  the  Russian  side  was  Roman  of  Volhynia,  the  same 
Roman  who  had  held  Novgorod  against  the  might  of 
Andrei,  and  who  had  been  thrown  over  to  procure  for  the 
city  a  substantial  peace.  This  prince,  whose  forefathers 
in  the  direct  line  back  to  the  first  Igor  had  all  been 
sovereigns  of  Kiev,  was  possessed  of  exceptional  qualities 
of  energy  and  enterprise,  and  saw  himself  fitted  to  replace 
the  effete  and  impolitic  Vladimir  in  the  important  and 
Magyar-threatened  principality  of  Galitz.  Between  the  war- 
like and  strenuous  efforts  of  this  battle-loving  kniaz,  who 
was  renowned  for  the  eagle-swoop  rapidity  with  which  he 
was  wont  to  hurl  himself  upon  his  enemies,  the  assiduous 
intrigues  and    invasions  of  Bela  III.  of  Hungary,  and  the 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  71 

occasional  intervention  of  the  princes  of  Poland,  the  West 
Russian  lands  were  kept  in  a  continual  ferment  ;  in  the  words 
of  the  saga,  "  Men's  lives  were  shortened  by  the  wars  of  the 
brother  princes.  Then  seldom  in  the  Russian  land  was 
heard  the  call  of  the  husbandman,  but  often  indeed  the 
ravens  croaking  as  they  divided  the  corpse  among  them, 
and  the  cry  of  the  corbies  as  they  called  to  each  other  to 
come  to  the  banquet."  Long  time  the  clashing  factions 
warred  and  schemed,  but  Roman  at  last  broke  down  all 
opposition  without  and  within.  In  dismal  plight  were  then 
those  notables  of  Galitz  who  had  resisted  his  incoming  ; 
according  to  Polish  accounts  he  treated  the  disaffected 
boyarins  with  a  savagery  unworthy  of  a  brave  prince. 
The  unfortunate  objects  of  his  ill-will  were  dismembered, 
flayed,  riddled  with  arrows,  buried  alive,  and  done  to  death 
in  various  other  barbarous  ways.^  "  To  eat  a  drop  of 
honey  in  peace,  one  must  first  kill  the  bees,"  was  his  ex- 
planation of  this  severity.  This  prince,  who,  in  the  words 
of  the  Russian  Chronicles,  "  walked  in  the  ways  of  God," 
was  soon  called  upon  to  defend  his  "  drop  of  honey  "  against 
the  Princes  of  Tchernigov  and  Kiev — a  coalition  brought 
together  by  jealousy  and  dislike  of  the  vigorous  Roman,  for 
whom,  however,  it  was  no  match.  Gathering  together  his 
Galician  and  Volhynian  retainers,  and  calling  to  his  aid 
the  Tchernie-Kloboukie  ("  Black-caps,"  a  name  given  to  the 
nomads  of  the  western  steppes  other  than  the  Polovtzi), 
he  threw  himself  with  the  famous  eagle-swoop  upon  Kiev, 
the  centre-point  of  his  enemies.  In  vain  did  its  Grand 
Prince  Rurik  and  the  Kniaz  of  Tchernigov  apply  themselves 
to  repel  his  attack  ;  the  Kievians,  who  had  a  trained  eye 
for  the  strongest  side,  threw  open  the  Podolian  Gate,  and 
the  redoubtable  Roman  swirled  with  his  warriors  into  the 
lower  city.  His  opponents  did  not  stay  to  dispute  the 
upper  quarter  with  him,  and  the  victorious  Prince  of  Galitz 
was  able,  with  the  assent  of  Vsevolod  of  Souzdal,  to  bestow 
the  time-worn  capital  on  one  of  his  own  kinsfolk.  At  the  1202 
request    of   the    Metropolitan,    Alexis    Comnenus,    and    on 

^  Kadlubek,  Origine  et  rebus  gestis  Polonoriiin. 


72  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

behalf  of  the  Greek  Imperial  family,  the  indefatigable 
Roman  made  a  diversion  against  the  Polovtzi,  who  were 
ravaging  the  Thracian  border.  Having  successfully  drawn 
off  their  attack  and  destroyed  their  camps,  he  returned  in 
triumph  to  Galitz,  During  his  absence  Kiev,  which  had 
betrayed  the  cause  of  Rurik,  experienced  in  full  measure 
the  resentment  of  that  prince  ;  calling  to  his  assistance  the 
Polovtzi — "  children  of  the  devils,"  but  useful  on  occasion — 
he  let  them  loose  on  the  miserable  inhabitants.  The 
Kuman  warfolk  passed  over  the  city  like  a  swarm  of 
locusts  over  a  barley  field  ;  nothing  escaped  their  devour- 
ing fury  except  the  foreign  merchants  who  defended 
themselves  behind  the  stone  walls  of  the  churches,  which 
became  veritable  sanctuaries  in  the  midst  of  a  blazing, 
blood-streaming  Kiev.  The  cathedrals  and  monasteries 
suffered  as  severely  from  the  heathen  pillagers  as  they  had 
done  at  the  hands  of  the  Christians  at  the  previous  sacking 
of  the  city  :  "  They  stripped  the  Cathedral  of  S.  Sofia,  the 
Church  of  the  Dime,  and  all  the  monasteries,  monks  and 
nuns,  priests  and  their  wives,  old  and  cripple,  they  killed, 
but  the  young  and  strong  they  drove  into  captivity."  ^ 

The  death  of  Roman  in  battle  with  the  Poles  near 
Zawichwost  (1205)  left  Red  Russia  once  more  a  prey  to 
domestic  strife  and  foreign  inroad. 

On  the  14th  April  12 12  came  to  an  end  the  thirty- 
seven  years'  reign  of  Vsevolod,  the  last  days  of  which  were 
clouded  by  a  quarrel  with  his  eldest  son  and  natural  heir, 
Konstantin.  The  latter,  whether  from  statesmanlike  motives 
or  mere  grasping  ambition,  refused  to  cede  to  his  brother  Urii 
the  patrimony  of  Rostov  designed  for  him,  in  consequence 
of  which  Vsevolod  bequeathed  to  the  injured  younger  son 
the  succession  to  the  grand  principality  of  Vladimir- 
Souzdal,  which  would  otherwise  have  been  the  share  of 
Konstantin.  Vsevolod,  overweighted  by  the  Russian 
chroniclers  with  the  title  of  "  Great,"  shared  in  his  youth  the 
exile  of  his  brothers  on  the  accession  of  Andrei,  and 
received   his  education  amid   Byzantine  influences.      In   this 

^  S.  Solov'ev. 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  73 

connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  scheme  of  poHcy 
unfolded  during  his  long  reign  bears  some  resemblance  to 
that  favoured  by  the  Greek  Emperors,  Avoiding  for  the 
most  part  the  employment  of  open  force  against  Novgorod, 
he  contrived,  nevertheless,  to  be  always  to  the  fore  in  the 
affairs  of  the  republic,  in  the  aspect  either  of  a  bogey  or 
a  patron,  in  any  case  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with.  Kiev 
he  allowed  to  pass  backwards  and  forwards  from  one  hand 
to  another,  and  in  this  way  contributed  to  the  decline  of 
her  importance  and  the  consequent  advancement  of  his 
own  capital  as  the  head-town  of  Russia.  This  pacific 
policy  gave  his  Souzdalian  subjects  a  measure  of  peace  and 
tranquillity  unknown  to  their  brothers  in  the  other  provinces, 
but  it  permitted  the  dangerous  aggrandisement  of  princes 
of  lesser  strength  and  more  limited  resources. 

The  Grand  Prince's  Greek  upbringing  and  possible 
Greek  sympathies  may  have  influenced  the  Russian  hier- 
archy in  the  decision  they  were  called  upon  to  make  during 
his  reign  between  adherence  to  or  desertion  of  the  distressed 
Church  of  Constantinople.  For  evil  times  had  fallen  upon 
the  Orthodox  communion  ;  since  the  eastern  and  western 
Christians  had  solemnly  and  bitterly  quarrelled  over  the 
merits  of  the  respective  formulas  "  proceeding  from  the 
Father  by  the  Son,"  and  "  proceeding  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son," — the  celebrated  controversy  of  the  Filioque^ — 
the  two  Churches  had  drifted  wider  and  wider  apart,  and 
the  hatred  existing  between  them  found  expression  in  the 
massacre  of  the  Latin  or  Roman  Catholic  inhabitants  of 
Constantinople  in  the  year  11  83,  when  young  and  old,  sick 
and  infirm  of  both  sexes  were  indiscriminately  slaughtered  ; 
when  the  head  of  the  Pope's  Legate,  severed  from  its 
legitimate  body  and  tied  to  the  tail  of  a  dog,  went  bumping 
and  thudding  along  the  public  streets  to  the  accompaniment 
of  hymns  of  praise  and  thanksgiving.  Now  (in  the  year 
1204)  it  was  the  turn  of  the  Latins  to  revenge  themselves 
on  the  stronghold  and  headquarters  of  the  rival  religion  ; 
the  French  and  Venetian  Crusaders,  turning  aside  from  the 
pious  object  of  their  expedition,  the   rescue  of  the   "  Holy 


74  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Land"  from  the  infidels,  had  carried  Constantinople  by 
assault,  replaced  the  fugitive  Greek  Emperor  by  a  Latin 
prince,  and  sacked  the  Tzargrad  with  systematic  thorough- 
ness. The  furniture  and  adornments  of  S.  Sophia  and 
other  sacred  buildings  became  spoil  for  the  western  soldiery, 
and  the  Lion  of  S.  Mark  waved  triumphantly  over  the 
scene  of  pillage  and  desecration.  Then  did  the  head  of 
the  Roman  Church,  the  splendid  Lotario  Conti  (Innocent 
III.),  beneath  whose  despotic  sway  chafed  and  trembled 
most  of  the  princes  of  Christendom,  follow  up  the  triumph 
of  the  Latin  arms  by  an  attempt  to  draw  the  heretic  Church 
of  Russia  into  the  Catholic  fold.  In  a  pastoral  letter  to 
the  prelates  and  clergy  of  the  Orthodox  faith  he  pointed 
out  the  temporal  ruin  which  had  overtaken  the  heads  of 
the  schismatic  religion,  and  invited  the  Russian  Christians 
to  attach  themselves  to  the  glories  and  benefits  of  Rome. 
The  appeal  fell  on  hostile  ears,  and  the  next  Metropolitan 
was  consecrated  at  Nicasa,  where  the  dispossessed  Emperor 
had  established  his  court. 

In  other  quarters  the  zeal  and  activity  of  the  Roman 
Church  brought  her  into  contact  with  Russian  "  spheres  of 
influence,"  to  use  a  modern  term.  Albrecht,  Bishop  of  the 
new  Livlandish  see  of  Riga,  had  instituted  in  that  district 
I20I  the  Order  of  the  Warriors  of  Christ,  or  Sword  Brethren, 
whose  mission  was  to  convert  the  pagan  Livlanders  by  fire, 
and  steel,  and  thong  to  the  worship  of  Jesus,  and  teach 
them  the  lesson  of  peace  on  earth  and  goodwill  towards 
men  with  which  His  name  was  associated.  As  the  scope  of 
their  endeavours  included  a  temporal  as  w^ell  as  a  spiritual 
ascendancy  over  the  lands  they  were  able  to  conquer,  their 
arms  soon  clashed  with  those  of  Vladimir,  Prince  of  Polotzk, 
who  claimed  the  over-lordship  of  Livland.  Reinforced  by 
Danish  warmen,  sent  to  their  assistance  by  King  Waldemar 
at  the  instance  of  the  Pope,  the  knights  of  the  Order  were 
able  to  hold  their  own  against  the  Russian  kniaz,  and  the 
Catholic  Church  scored  another  triumph  in  Europe  to  make 
up  for  her  disappointments  in  Asia  Minor. 

Vsevolod  left  to  his  successors  the  heritage  of  a  ready- 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  75 


made  feud,  in  which  the  members  of  his  family  took  different 
sides,  some  supporting  Urii,  who  held  Souzdal  and  Vladimir, 
others  ranging  themselves  with  Konstantin,  who  kept  his 
grasp  on  Rostov.  After  a  campaign  in  which  neither  side 
could  obtain  a  decided  advantage,  the  brothers  agreed  to 
divide  the  principality  between  them,  Urii  retaining  the 
largest  share,  which  included  Vladimir,  Souzdal,  and 
Moskva.  Another  brother,  Yaroslav,  became  in  an  un- 
lucky hour  the  choice  of  the  people  of  Novgorod.  In 
course  of  time  they  quarrelled  with  him,  as  was  their  wont. 
Yaroslav  shook  the  dust  of  the  ungovernable  city  off  his 
feet,  and  settled  himself  down  at  Torjhok  to  starve  it  into 
submission.  Its  imports  of  grain  were  systematically  cut 
off,  supplies  of  every  kind  were  intercepted,  and  famine 
stalked  through  the  streets  of  Novgorod.  Want,  in  its  most 
fearful  form,  the  starvation  of  an  entire  populace,  tamed 
the  spirit  of  the  proud  citizens.  Pine-bark  and  moss  were 
chewed  in  place  of  the  bread  that  could  not  be  bought  for 
money  ;  the  bodies  of  those  who  died  of  hunger  lined  the 
streets — the  dogs  at  least  were  fed.  What  manner  of  man 
was  this  who  sat  gloating,  vampire-like,  over  the  misery  of  a 
province  which  he  would  neither  govern  nor  renounce  ? 
Vainly  embassies  and  petitions  were  sent  by  the  stricken 
citizens,  who  tendered  their  submission  and  besought  him  to 
take  up  his  rule  over  them  ;  the  spokesmen  were  cast  into 
prison  and  the  dearth  continued.  Then  like  a  god  from  the 
blue  appeared  to  the  famishing  and  despairing  Novgorodskie 
their  erstwhile  prince,  Mstislav  of  Toropetz.  The  bitter 
cry  of  their  extremity  had  reached  him  in  Southern  Russia 
and  drawn  him  to  their  succour.  After  vainly  attempting 
to  bring  Yaroslav  to  reason,  Mstislav  took  up  arms  against 
him.  The  first-named  prince  could  count  on  the  support  of 
Urii,  but  on  the  other  hand  Mstislav  had  engaged  Kon- 
stantin on  his  side,  so  that  the  province  of  Souzdal  was 
drawn,  town  against  town,  into  this  local  quarrel.  The 
armies  of  the  two  leagues,  burning  with  resentment  against 
each  other,  met  on  the  plain  of  Lipetsk.  After  a  desperate  1216 
battle  the  troops  of  Rostov,  Smolensk,  and  Novgorod  scored 


76  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

a  decisive  victory  and  hewed  down  their  scattering  foes  dur- 
ing an   April   afternoon  with   the   fierce  joy  that  a  triumph 
in  civil  warfare  inspires.      Over   9000  of  the  vanquished  are 
stated  to  have  fallen   in  the  fight  and   subsequent  slaughter. 
Four  days  later  the  inhabitants  of  Vladimir,  consisting  for 
the  most  part  of  women,  children,  monks,  and   priests,  and 
men  too  old  to  have  marched  to  the  war,  saw  in   the  gray 
distance  a  single  horseman  making  with  weary  speed  for  the 
city — a    courier,  they    fondly    imagined,   sent    to   announce 
their  Prince's  victory.      The   Prince   (Urii)    himself  rode    in 
through  the  startled  crowd,  the  forlorn  herald  of  the  disaster 
which  had  overwhelmed   his  army.      The  depleted  province 
was   in   no  plight  to  withstand   the  victors,  and   the  Grand 
Principality  was   practically  at   the  disposal   of  the   upstart 
Kniaz    of   Toropetz.      Konstantfn,    by    his    decree,    became 
Prince     of    Vladimir- Souzdal,    naming     Urii,     however,    to 
succeed  him  at  his  death.      Mstislav  returned  in  triumph  to 
Novgorod,  where   he   was  hailed   with   acclamations  by  the 
citizens,  to  whom  he  had  been    a   friend   in   need.      It  was  a 
bitter   irony   of   circumstance    that   almost    the   only  prince 
for  whom   they  had  had  a  lasting  affection  could  not  find  it 
well  to  stay  with  them.      Perhaps  he  was  fearful  of  outstay- 
ing his  welcome,  or  wished   to    secure    for  himself  a   more 
assured    possession   than    the  government   of  the    fickle  re- 
public,   and    the     foreign    encroachments    which     disturbed 
Russia  on  her  western   marches  attracted  his  adventure-lov- 
ing spirit  to  play  the  rescuer  in  that  direction.      In  Livland, 
Volquin  von  Winterstadt,  Grand  Master  of  the  Sword  Order, 
was  ever  seeking  to  push  forward  his  military  outposts  ;  the 
Lit'uanians,  harassed  by  Catholics  on  one  side  and  Orthodox- 
neighbours  on   the  other,  were   drawing   closer   together  in 
self-defence,  and  becoming  more  formidable  to  Polotzk  and 
Pskov,  while  Red  Russia  was  a  prey  to  Hungarian  domina- 
tion and   Polish  interference.      It  was  by  invitation   of  the 
latter  power,  in   the   person   of  Duke   Lesko,  that   Mstislav 
undertook  to  drive   the   Hungarians  out  of  Galicia,  and   in 
consequence  bade  an   affectionate  farewell   to  the  people  of 
Novgorod,  the  tomb  of  his  father,  and  the  Cathedral  of  S.  Sofia. 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  77 


While  foreign  war  flamed  lurid  in  the  west,  a  peaceable 
restoration  had  been  witnessed  in  the  north-east,  where 
Urii,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Konstantin  (12 19),  had 
come  into  possession  of  the  Grand  Principality.  In  the 
north-west,  again,  important  happenings  were  forcing  them- 
selves disagreeably  on  the  notice  of  the  border  princes. 
Many  causes  contributed  to  complicate  the  struggle  for 
mastery  which  was  beginning  to  be  waged  in  the  pagan- 
inhabited  lands  at  the  mouth  of  the  western  Dvina  and 
along  the  "  Baltic  gull-sought  strand."  The  institution  of 
the  Crusades  and  the  erection  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  had  aroused  a  spirit  of  religious  and  temporal 
colonisation  and  conquest,  of  which  the  seizure  of  Con- 
stantinople was  a  symptom,  while  on  the  other  hand  the 
comparative  failure  of  the  Asiatic  expeditions  and  the  re- 
capture of  Jerusalem  by  the  Moslems  had  modified  the 
crusading  fervour  and  disinclined  the  champions  of  the  Cross 
to  seek  adventures  so  far  afield.  Hence  many  Catholic 
princes  and  knights  were  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
Papal  permission  to  divert  their  pious  raids  from  the  valley 
of  the  Jordan  to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  a  more  convenient 
locality,  where  they  might  gain,  in  addition  to  their  eternal 
salvation,  welcome  pieces  of  earthly  territory.  Danes, 
Swedes,  the  Sword  Brothers,  and  later  (in  1230)  the 
Teutonic  Order,  fought  indiscriminately  with  the  native 
pagans,  with  the  Russians,  and  with  themselves  for  the 
advancement  of  the  Catholic  religion  and  of  their  own 
interests,  Estland,  Kourland,  Livland,  Lit'uania,  and 
Prussia  became  happy  hunting-grounds  for  these  various 
adventurers  and  military  companies,  and  the  unfortunate 
inhabitants,  confronted  with  an  embarras  du  richesse  in  the 
way  of  spiritual  guides,  knew  not  which  way  to  turn  for 
safety,  A  Tchoud  notable  was  hanged  by  the  Danes  for 
having  received  baptism  from  the  Sword  Order,  and  the 
Latin  and  Orthodox  Christians  systematically  destroyed 
each  other's  churches  and  settlements  whenever  they  had 
the  opportunity.  Of  the  knights  of  the  two  Orders,  how- 
ever, it  may  be  said  that  the  cruelties  and  oppressions  with 


78  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

which  they  sought  to  harry  the  heathen  into  their  particular 
fold  were  in  some  measure  condoned  by  the  splendid 
bravery  and  devotion  which  they  displayed  in  carrying  out 
their  self-imposed  task.  Moreover,  it  was  to  these  northern 
crusaders  that  the  Baltic  provinces  owed  many  of  their  most 
important  towns  :  Riga  was  the  creation  of  the  Knights  of 
Jesus  ;  Thorn,  Kulm,  and  Elbing  marked  the  rise  of  the 
Teutonic  Order  ;  Revel  sprang  into  existence  under  Danish 
auspices.  It  was  during  a  combat  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  latter  town  that  the  Danes  received  "  from  the  clouds  " 
the  red  flag  blazoned  with  a  white  cross  which  has  since 
remained  their  national  standard — a  mark  of  Divine  favour 
which  did  not,  however,  cause  the  immediate  withdrawal  of 
their  Christian  competitors.  The  cruelties  and  dissensions 
of  the  invaders  moved  the  inhabitants  of  Northern  Livland 
to  throw  off  the  Catholic  yoke  and  call  the  citizens  of 
Novgorod  to  their  assistance,  propitiating  them  with  a 
portion  of  the  spoil  they  had  wrested  from  the  Germans  and 
Skandinavians,  Novgorod,  by  a  curious  revulsion  of  feeling, 
had,  after  a  succession  of  princes  of  the  house  of  Souzdal, 
elected  the  same  Yaroslav  who  had  treated  her  people  with 
such  heartless  cruelty.  Possibly,  in  the  turn  affairs  were 
taking  on  their  west,  the  Novgorodskie  saw  an  opportunity 
for  employing  his  malignant  genius  against  their  obnoxious 
enemies.  But  the  warlike  efforts  of  the  men  of  Lake  Ilmen 
and  their  Souzdalian  prince  were  neutralised  by  the  fact 
that  the  Germans,  fighting  behind  the  walls  of  their  towns, 
were  more  skilled  in  the  handling  of  the  slings  and  stone- 
hurling  engines,  the  rude  artillery  of  the  day  ;  the  old 
Russian  proverb,  "  Who  can  resist  God  and  Velikie  Nov- 
gorod ?  "  had  to  be  modified  in  the  face  of  such  weapons  of 
precision,  and  the  Westerners  remained  masters  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  disputed  territories. 

Two  hundred  years  of  unending  domestic  strife,  carving 
and  shredding  off  into  a  crowd  of  incoherent  provinces — 
Kiev,  Tchernigov,  Riazan,  Souzdal,  Smolensk,  Polotzk,  Nov- 
gorod, Pskov,  Volhynia,  Galitz,  and  others  of  less  importance 
— had   not    fitted    Russia    to    contend    with    the    expanding 


Ill  THE  FEUDS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  RURIK  79 


powers  of  Catholic  Christendom,  or  to  show  a  solid  front 
against  the  incursion  of  teeming  Asiatic  hordes  on  her  east. 

The  Chronicles  of  Russian  history  at  this  period  were 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  monks  who  wrote  them  around 
the  deeds  of  the  princes  or  of  the  luminaries  of  the  Church  ; 
hence  little  can  be  gleaned  from  them  of  the  social  life  and 
condition  of  the  people,  who  existed  therein  solely  for  the 
purposes  of  supplying  raw  material  for  a  massacre  or  a 
pestilence.  The  history  of  Novgorod  is  valuable  as  yielding 
occasional  glimpses  of  the  life-pulse  that  beat  beneath  the 
over -crust  of  court  or  cathedral  annals,  but  this  city  was 
too  impregnated  with  outside  influences  to  furnish  a  faithful 
picture  of  the  inward  state  of  old-time  Russia.  Of  the 
towns  it  may  be  broadly  stated  that  they  were  yet  little 
more  in  scope  than  walled  villages  ;  universities  or  seats  of 
learning  other  than  the  monkish  cloister  there  were  none, 
and  much  of  the  trade  was  in  the  hands  of  foreign  merchants. 
The  wealthy  boyarins  had  their  houses  and  palaces  clustered 
within  the  walls,  and  often  possessed  in  addition  other  houses 
in  the  sloboda,  or  detached  village,  without,  where  there  was 
more  space  available  for  gardens,  etc.  Freemen  as  well  as 
slaves  (the  latter  captured  in  war  or  bought)  were  in  their 
service,  but  the  abject  poverty  of  the  lower  classes  of  freemen 
bound  them  in  almost  servile  dependence  on  their  masters. 
Even  more  grinding  was  the  normal  state  of  poverty  in 
which  the  peasants  eked  out  their  livelihood,  and  the  name 
smerd  applied  to  them  was  one  of  contempt,  something  akin 
to  our  "  rascallion."  For  the  most  part  the  peasants  tilled 
the  soil  for  the  landowners  under  a  system  which  allowed 
them  a  half,  or  other  fixed  share,  of  the  harvest  produced, 
the  freeman  having  this  distinction  from  the  kholop  or  bond- 
man that  he  was  able  to  move  from  one  estate  to  another 
at  will.  Under  these  conditions  of  hand-to-mouth  existence 
farm-craft  remained  at  a  very  low  ebb ;  with  axe,  scythe, 
and  plough  the  peasant  won  precarious  roothold  for  his 
crops,  which  might  be  blighted  by  an  untimely  frost-coming 
or  damaged  by  a  too-late  thaw,  leaving  him  to  propitiate 
his  appeal -court  of  saints  by  an   involuntary  emptiness  of 


8o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap,   hi 


Stomach.  With  cattle-stock,  horses,  and  horned  beasts,  the 
Russian  lands,  of  the  north  especially,  were  ill-provided,  and 
possibly  this  was  partly  the  outcome  of  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  country,  which  discouraged  the  multiplication  of 
movable  property,  even  the  heaviest  church  bells  being  now 
and  again  swept  off  in  the  wake  of  some  pilfering  kniaz-raid.^ 

1  Karamzin  ;   S.    Solov'ev ;    Schiemann  ;    Kostomarov,     Sieverno    Rousskiya 
Narodopravstva,  Chronique  de  Nestor. 


I 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE   COMING    OF    THE    MONGOLS 

As    an    advancing    tide,    engulfing    in    its    progression    the 
stretches  of  ooze-land  which  lie  in   its  onward  path,  sends 
scurrying  before  it  flights  of  waders  and  other  shore-haunting 
birds,   driven    from     their    feeding    grounds,    so    the    great 
Mongol    wave    which    was    creeping    upon    Eastern    Europe 
drove   before  it  disordered  troops  of  the   Polovtzi  nomads, 
seeking    among   their   old    enemies   the    safety   which    their 
desert  fastnesses  no  longer  afforded.      Into  the  principality 
of  Kiev  poured  the  fugitives,  bringing  with  them  droves  of 
horses,  camels,  cattle,  and  buffaloes — a  wonderful  and   mis- 
giving sight  to  the  staring  Russians,  who  saw  their  fierce, 
untamable    foes,  the    incarnation    to    them    of   all    that  was 
barbarous,  outlandish,  and  terrible,  cowering  and  fleeing  from 
some  unseen  horror  behind.      That  the  wolf  of  the  steppes 
should   come  to  lie  down,  panting  and  trembling,  with  the 
lamb,  boded  the  advent  of  anything  but  a  millennium.      The 
accounts  given  by  the  Polovtzi  khans  of  the  Mongol  hordes 
which  had   swept  the  tribes   of  Western   Asia  before   their 
advancing  host,  roused  the  Russian  princes  to  a  sense  of  the 
danger  they  courted  by  their  disunion,  and  gathered   them 
together  in  the  old  capital  to  deliberate  on  a  common  action 
in  opposition  to  the  threatened  invasion.      Mstislav  of  Galitz, 
erstwhile  of  Toropetz,  Mstislav  Romanovitch  (of  the  house 
of  Smolensk),  Prince  of  Kiev,  Daniel  of  Volhynia,  Mstislav 
of  Tchernigov,  and   other    princes  of  less  importance,  held 
high  counsel  between  them,  and  debated  the  means  of  avert- 
ing the  Mongol  advance  ;  and  as  they  paused  in  their  de- 
liberations   to    mark    the    unwonted    caravans    and    uncouth 

G 


82  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

brutes  of  the  desert  that  thronged  the  streets  and  approaches 
of  Kiev,  it  must  have  been  borne  in  upon  them  that  already 
Asia  had  overflowed  her  Hmits  and  swept  the  Russian  lands 
into  her  embrace.  And  while,  taking  heart  of  grace  from 
the  assemblage  of  so  many  important  princes  and  the 
leadership  of  the  redoubtable  Mstislav  of  Galitz,  they  con- 
sider how  best  to  oppose  these  fearsome  enemies,  it  will  be 
of  interest  to  learn  something  of  the  history  of  this  Mongol 
horde,  this  mushroom  growth  that  had  over-spread  the 
northern  empire  of  China,  made  a  desolate  waste  of  Persia, 
carried  its  arms  into  Hindostan,  and  risen  to  be  the  greatest 
power  in  Asia,  and  which  was  now  threatening  to  attack  the 
outskirts  of  Christendom. 

In  the  dreary  steppc-Iand  of  the  Gobi  desert,  south  of 
the  Baikal  Sea,  where  flows  the  Onon,  a  tributary  of  the 
Amur,  history  first  locates  the  Mongols,  in  the  sixth  ccnturj', 
under  the  name  Mongu,  possibly  derived  from  the  word 
"  mong,"  signifying  bold,  daring.  At  that  period  they  are 
indicated  as  a  sub-tribe  of  the  Shi-wei,  who  dwelt  to  the 
north-west  of  Manchuria,  and  did  not  enjoy  any  considerable 
importance.  This  insignificance  continued  till  the  accession, 
in  I  1 75,  to  the  Mongol  Khanate,  of  Temudjin,  known 
later  under  the  world-famous  nameof  Jingis  Khan,  when  the 
number  of  his  subjects  did  not  exceed  40,000  families.  A 
series  of  successful  wars  with  the  tribes  in  his  immediate 
neighbourhood  paved  the  way  for  more  ambitious  under- 
takings, and  he  soon  carried  his  victorious  standard,  the  Tuk 
with  nine  yak  tails,  into  the  northern  empire  of  China, 
which  was  ruled  over  by  the  Kin,  or  Tartar  dynasty 
(South  China  being  separately  governed  by  the  Sung 
dynasty).  From  this  point  Jingis  carried  on  campaign  after 
campaign  with  almost  uniform  success,  till  the  greater 
part  of  Asia  grovelled  beneath  his  yoke.  Pitilessly  cruel, 
this  "  cormorant  of  conquest "  marked  each  fresh  advance, 
whether  resisted  or  unopposed,  with  wholesale  massacres, 
which,  after  allowing  for  Oriental  exaggeration,  swell  to  a 
ghastly  total.  "From  121  i  to  1223,  18,470,000  human 
beings  perished   in  China  and  Tangut  alone  at  the  hands  of 


IV 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  83 


Jingis  and  his  followers,"^  a  record  which  would  have  turned 
the  early  kings  of  Israel  green  with  envy.  The  Mongolian 
policy  was  to  scatter,  ruin,  and,  if  possible,  exterminate  ex- 
isting civilisations  and  communities  wherever  their  victorious 
armies  passed.-  The  terror  which  the  Mongol  cruelties 
inspired  unnerved  their  opponents  and  disinclined  nations 
with  whom  they  were  at  peace  from  combining  against  them, 
while  their  hardy  desert  horses,  light  equipment,  and  powers 
of  endurance  enabled  them  to  travel  enormous  distances  in 
all  conditions  of  weather.  Powerful  empires  like  those  of 
China  and  Persia  writhed  beneath  their  yoke  ;  lesser  states, 
such  as  Great  Bulgaria  and  Georgia,  were  almost  wiped  out 
of  existence.  The  conquest  of  this  latter  country  by  a 
division  of  the  Horde,  under  the  leadership  of  Chepe  and 
Subatai,  two  of  the  Mongol  chiefs,  was  followed  by  an 
incursion  into  the  land  occupied  by  the  Kumans,  or  Polovtzi, 
which  brought  the  destroying  hosts  on  to  the  verge  of  the 
Russian  dominion.  Southward  the  flying  Kumans  were 
pursued  as  far  as  the  Krim  peninsula,  at  which  point  the 
Mongols  first  came  into  contact  with  Western  civilisation, 
burning  Sudak,  where  the  Genoese  had  a  flourishing  com- 
mercial  station.  Now  were  ten  ambassadors  sent  to  the 
alarmed  Russian  princes,  assuring  them  that  they  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  Horde,  but  warning  them  against  showing 
any  support  to  the  Polovtzi.  Fear  and  resentment  made  the 
princes  forget  the  customs  of  civilisation,  and  the  messengers 
were  put  to  death,  an  inauspicious  opening  for  the  coming 
struggle.  Having  thus  defied  the  gathering  storm,  the 
Russians  crossed  the  Dniepr  and  marched  to  the  banks  of 
the  Kalka,  where  they  prepared  to  meet  these  new  foes  from 

1  Sir  H.  H.  Howorth,  History  of  the  Mongols. 

2  Howorth  sees  in  the  recurring  devastations  of  such  men  as  Jingis,  Attila, 
Timur,  Bonaparte,  and  their  ilk,  the  hand  of  "Providence"  operating  to  purge 
the  world  of  "  the  diseased  and  the  decaying,  the  weak  and  the  false,  the  worn 
out  and  the  biased,  the  fool  and  the  knave."  The  Mongol  massacres  were  so 
thorough  and  indiscriminate  that  it  is  hard  to  say  what  classes  of  human  beings 
came  safest  out  of  the  ordeal,  but  in  the  wars  of  Napoleon  it  would  certainly  not 
be  a  survival  of  the  fittest ;  the  weak,  the  cowardly,  the  frivolous  would  be  least 
likely  to  perish  ;  the  strong,  the  brave,  the  patriotic  would  be  those  who  "  fore- 
most fighting  fell." 


84  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


the  east,  as  they  had  aforetime  met  the  Polovtzi  and  the 
Petchenigs  before  them.  But  even  at  this  critical  moment 
the  princes  were  not  in  complete  accord  ;  each  was  jealous 
of  the  other,  each  fought  for  his  own  hand.  Mstislav  of 
Galitz  thought  he  could  win  the  fight  with  his  own  forces 
and  the  assistance  of  the  Polovtzi,  but  the  latter  were  unable 
to  withstand  the  Mongol  onset  and  broke  in  wild  confusion. 
The  Russians  fought  well,  but  they  fought  apart  and  without 
cohesion,  and  were  only  united  in  one  overwhelming  ruin. 
The  battle  of  the  Kalka,  on  the  31st  May  1224,  was  a 
terrible  catastrophe  in  Russian  history,  and  fitly  heralded  a 
disastrous  epoch  in  her  annals.  An  army  of  over  80,000 
men  was  scattered  like  chaff  before  the  exulting  Mongols, 
and  to  add  to  the  horror  of  the  flight  the  treacherous  Pol- 
ovtzi, on  behalf  of  whom  the  Russians  had  entered  into  the 
quarrel,  slew  and  plundered  as  they  fled.  From  the  fatal 
banks  of  the  Kalka  to  those  of  the  Dniepr  raced  the  broken 
bands  of  Russians,  the  laggards  falling  beneath  the  lances 
and  sabres  of  their  grim  pursuers.  Six  princes,  many 
boyarins,  and  thousands  of  soldiers  were  numbered  among 
the  slain.  The  young  Daniel  Romanovitch  of  Volhynia 
escaped  wounded  from  the  woeful  field,  while  Mstislav  of 
Kiev  with  two  other  princes  defended  themselves  for  three 
days  in  a  fortified  camp  on  the  bank  of  the  Kalka.  Deluded 
by  a  false  promise  of  security,  they  at  length  fell  into  the 
power  of  the  Mongols,  who  slaughtered  the  men  and 
smothered  the  princes  under  planks,  holding  wild  carousal 
over  their  swollen  bodies — a  scene  which  recalls  the  "  night 
of  Cannae's  raging  field."  Southern  Russia  lay  helpless  at 
the  pleasure  of  these  merciless  enemies,  who  ravaged  un- 
checked in  the  villages  and  homesteads  near  the  scene  of 
their  victory.  Then  they  did  a  most  unexpected  thing  ;  they 
went.  Retiring  through  Great  Bulgaria,  they  vanished  as 
suddenly  as  they  had  come  ;  of  their  arrival  and  departure 
might  almost  be  said  what  was  said  of  their  attack  on 
Bokhara  :  "  They  came,  dug,  burnt,  killed,  robbed,  went." 
The  Russian  lands  awoke  as  from  a  nightmare  to  find  their 
unwelcome  guests  had  departed. 


IV  THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  85 

In  the  midst  of  their  conquests  the  separate  Mongol 
bands  turned  as  if  by  common  instinct  back  to  their  native 
haunts  in  the  remote  valley  of  the  Onon,  where  they  hunted 
and  hawked  after  swans  and  cranes,  antelopes  and  wild  asses, 
in  the  odd  moments  when  they  were  not  engaged  in  hunting 
men.  Then  occurred  that  picturesque  gathering  which 
Hovvorth  has  so  eloquently  described,  when  the  old  Khan 
held  his  simple  court  surrounded  by  his  family  and  chieftains, 
a  little  knot  of  desert  nomads  who  between  them  had  con- 
quered half  the  known  world. 

The  Russians  meanwhile,  delivered  from  the  desolating 
presence  of  the  Mongol  hosts,  resumed  the  uneven  tenor  of 
their  ways  ;  the  citizens  of  Novgorod  continued  to  displace 
and  re-elect  their  princes,  archbishops,  and  posadniks  ;  the 
boyarins  of  Galicia  to  plot  and  intrigue  with  Hungary, 
Poland,  and  the  house  of  Romanovitch  ;  the  princes  to 
quarrel  over  the  eternal  readjustment  of  their  appanages. 
And  here  is  a  fit  moment  to  review  the  unfolding  spectacle 
of  national  development  among  the  Russian  Slavs  since 
their  focussing  under  the  early  princes,  and  examine  the 
drift  and  purpose  underlying  the  chronicle  of  their  doings. 
Frankly  the  result  is  not  edifying.  It  is  an  unpleasant 
accusation  to  hurl  against  a  people,  but  in  these  early 
centuries  of  their  history  they  may  be  aptly  likened  to  the 
"  gray  apes "  portrayed  by  Kipling's  magic  pen, — always 
setting  out  to  do  some  great  thing,  never  quite  remembering 
what  it  was  they  had  meant  to  do,  holding  fast  to  a  thing  one 
moment,  letting  it  go  the  next,  restless  and  ambitious,  with- 
out any  clear  idea  of  what  they  desired,  such  is  the  charac- 
ter that  must  reluctantly  be  given  them.  These  blind 
devotions  to  the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  these  aimless  re- 
bellions against  their  authority,  these  fervid  worshippings  of 
Mother-of-God  and  saints,  these  impious  plunderings  of 
cathedrals  and  monasteries,  these  kissings  and  swearings  on 
the  cross,  these  shameless  breaking  of  oaths,  these  holy  wars 
against  the  Polovtzi,  these  frequent  military  and  matrimonial 
alliances  with  them,  these  sacrifices  to  keep  in  touch  with  the 
Greek  Empire  and   the   south,  this  abandoning  of  the  south 


86  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

lands  to  Turko  nomads  and  Italian  merchants,  these  internal 
complications,  revolutions,  banishments,  recalls,  leagues,  and 
counter-leagues,  shifting  as  the  sands  of  a  river-bed,  what  do 
they  bring  to  mind  but  a  family  of  children  squabbling  and 
loving  and  squabbling  again  in  ever-varying  combinations,  or, 
nearer  still,  the  former  simile,  the  gray  apes.  Other  countries 
and  peoples  were,  it  is  true,  going  through  the  same  period 
of  anarchy  and  disorder,  but  there  was  at  least  some  method 
in  their  madness.  In  Italy,  amid  the  wild  chaos  of  republics, 
principalities,  and  imperial  cities,  there  can  plainly  be  dis- 
cerned in  the  as  yet  scarcely  named  factions  of  Guelph  and 
Ghibelline  the  Papal  power  seeking  to  extend  itself  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  Imperial  interest  striving  to  establish 
itself  on  the  other,  and  a  third  party  playing  off  one  against 
the  other  for  the  attainment  of  its  own  independence.  In 
Germany,  Emperor,  electors,  prince-bishops,  free  cities,  and 
the  other  constituents  of  the  commonweal  are  balanced  one 
against  the  other  in  an  intricate  but  perfectly  understandable 
whole,  each  working  to  a  definite  and  rational  end.  In 
France  and  England  king  and  barons  fight  out  the  old 
battle  of  monarchy  against  aristocracy,  which  is  to  be  merged 
one  day  in  a  conflict  with  a  newer  force — if  anything  is  new 
under  the  sun.  But  where  is  the  aim  or  interest  in  these 
minutely-recorded  Russian  struggles  ?  Hidden  away  in  the 
forests  of  Souzdal,  perhaps,  lies  the  embryo  or  germ  of  a  state 
policy,  if  it  ever  be  hatched  into  life.  Meanwhile  Russia  is 
losing  ground,  literally  and  metaphorically,  in  many  direc- 
tions. Southward,  as  has  been  noticed,  a  broad  zone  of 
steppe,  inhabited  by  Turko  tribes,  shuts  her  off  from  the  coast 
cities  of  the  Black  Sea,  where  the  pushing  Genoese  have 
ensconced  their  factories.  Galicia,  with  its  population  of 
White  Kroats,  is  becoming  less  Russian  every  day.  Lit'uania, 
no  longer  held  under  by  the  neighbouring  provinces,  threatens 
to  expand  at  their  expense.  The  Baltic  lands  are  drifting 
into  Teutonic  and  Catholic  hands.  Velikie  Novgorod  her- 
self, absorbed  in  the  details  of  parochial  administration,  has 
let  her  magnificent  foreign  trade  slip  into  the  grip  of  strangers. 
For   Novgorod   was   not,   as   Howorth  imagines,  "  a  famous 


IV 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  87 


member  of  the  Hanseatic  League  "  ;  the  League,  now  begin- 
ning to  play  an  important  part  in  the  annals  of  Northern 
Europe,  merely  had  a  factory  and  station  there,  as  it  had  at 
London  and  Lisbon,  and  this  factory  speedily  monopolised 
the  oversea  trade  of  the  great  Russian  emporium  ;  "  during 
three  centuries  the  Hanseatic  League  concentrated  in  her 
own  hands  all  the  external  commerce  of  Northern  Russia."  ^ 
Finally,  on  the  eastern  marches  hovered  the  shadow  of  the 
late  incursion,  an  incursion  which  might  at  any  moment  be 
repeated. 

While  the  war-clouds  were  lowering  dark  and  ill-boding 
over  the  land,  sank  in  the  west  that  day-star  of  Russian 
chivalry,  Mstislav  Mstislavitch,  more  or  less  Prince  of  Galitz, 
Brave  as  a  boar  in  battle,  in  council  he  was  about  as  intelli- 
gent ;  "  nothing  is  sadder  than  victory,  except  defeat,"  and  1228 
with  him  certainly  a  success  was  almost  as  expensive  as  a 
reverse  could  have  been.  His  brilliant  achievements  gained 
no  advantage  for  his  family  or  for  Russia,  and  on  his  death 
Andrew,  son  of  the  Hungarian  king  of  that  name,  stepped 
into  the  vacant  sovereignty.  This  border  province,  with  its 
involved  political  conditions,  had  a  magnetic  attraction  for 
the  more  adventurous  spirits  among  the  Russian  princes, 
and  a  candidate  was  ready  to  hand  to  dispute  its  possession 
in  the  person  of  Daniel  Romanovitch  of  Volhynia.  Just 
such  another  knight -errant  as  Mstislav,  Daniel  possessed 
more  of  the  ability  to  seize  the  contested  throne  than  the 
address  to  establish  himself  firmly  on  it.  The  son  of  an 
imperious  and  overbearing  father,  he  had  many  enemies. 
Vladimir  Rurikovitch  of  Kiev,  for  instance,  had  not  forgotten 
that  Roman  had  made  his  father  assume  the  tonsure  against 
his  inclinations,  and  in  pursuance  of  this  bequeathed  quarrel 
formed  a  league  against  Daniel,  which  included  the  Princes 
of  Tchernigov  and  Pinsk,  and  of  course  the  Polovtzi.  By 
detaching  Kotian,  the  celebrated  Polovtzi  Khan,  from  this 
confederation,  Daniel  was  able  to  gain  a  complete  victory 
over  his  enemies.  Scarcely  was  this  accomplished  than  he 
whirled    away,  as    his    father    had   done,    into    the    troubled 

^  Riesenkampff,   Der  Deutsche  Hof  zu  Nowgorod. 


88  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

affairs  of  Poland,  where  he  supported  Duke  Konrad  of 
Mazovia  against  the  party  opposed  to  his  regency,  his 
murdered  brother,  Duke  Lesko  V.,  having  left  his  son  and 
heir,  Boleslas  V.,  in  his  charge.  Elate  with  the  success 
which  attended  his  arms  in  this  direction,  on  his  return  he 
flung  himself,  with  the  hereditary  eagle-swoop,  on  to  the  city 
1229  of  Galitz,  which  fell  into  his  hands,  together  with  the  person 
of  Prince  Andrew.  This  advantage  he  threw  away  by  per- 
mitting his  valuable  prisoner  to  retire  to  Hungary,  whither 
had  already  fled  Soudislav,  one  of  the  most  active  of  the 
boyarins  who  favoured  the  Magj'ar  dynasty.  The  reward 
of  this  clemency  was  a  new  attack  on  Galicia  by  the  Hun- 
garians, led  by  Prince  Bela  (afterwards  Bela  IV.)  The 
elements  were  unpropitious  ;  torrents  and  floods  damaged 
and  hindered  the  invading  army,  and  contributed  to  its 
defeat,  and  the  Hungarians  recrossed  the  Karpathians  in 
evil  plight.  The  position  of  Daniel  was,  however,  too  pre- 
carious to  withstand  for  long  the  resources  of  Hungary,  the 
disaffection  of  his  subjects,  and  the  enmity  of  some  of  his 
brother  princes.  Foremost  among  the  latter  was  his  cousin 
and  inveterate  enemy,  Aleksandr  of  Helz,  who,  having  been 
implicated  in  a  plot  which  miscarried,  fled  to  Hungary  and 
roused  the  king  to  a  new  attempt  on  this  fair  and  coveted 
province.  The  boyarins,  who  saw  themselves,  doubtless,  of 
more  authority  and  importance  as  the  courtiers  of  a  foreign 
prince  than  under  the  personal  rule  of  a  vigorous  Russian 
kniaz,  deserted  to  the  Hungarian  standard,  and  the  young 
Andrew  became  once  more  "  King  of  Galicia."  His  death 
in  1234  paved  the  way  for  the  restoration  of  the  Romano- 
vitch,  and  the  boyarins  of  the  Magyar  party  had  to  seek 
safety  beyond  the  mountains.  Less  concerned,  however,  in 
strengthening  his  hold  upon  this  slipper>'  fief  than  in  carrying 
his  arms  into  quarrels  which  did  not  concern  him,  Daniel 
rushed  to  the  assistance  of  his  late  enemy,  Vladimir  of  Kiev, 
who  was  embroiled  in  a  war  with  Mikhail  of  Tchernigov. 
Daniel  ravaged  the  latter  province,  but  disaster  overtook 
him  and  Vladimir  in  the  shape  of  a  defeat  by  a  Polovtzi 
army,  led  by  Isiaslav,  grandson  of  the  immortalised   Igor  of 


IV  THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  89 

Severski — a  strange  combination.  Kiev  and  Galitz  both 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors,  Mikhail  establishing  himself 
in  the  latter  principality,  while  Isiaslav  held  Kiev.  On  the 
departure  of  the  Polovtzi  he  was  obliged  to  restore  the  city 
to  Vladimir,  who  in  turn  ceded  it  to  Yaroslav  Vsevolodovitch,  1236 
prince  and  sometime  persecutor  of  the  Novgorodskie  ;  he, 
on  leaving  Novgorod,  placed  in  his  stead  his  son  Aleksandr, 
afterwards  celebrated  as  "  Nevski."  Daniel  flitted  about  the 
neighbouring  lands  like  a  restless  ghost,  seeking  aid  against 
the  intruding  Olgovitch,  even  in  Hungary,  where  Bela  had 
succeeded  his  father  Andrew  (1235),  and  where  the  exile 
could  obtain  nothing  more  than  promises,  which  were  scarcely 
likely  to  be  fulfilled.  Nor  did  he  receive  warmer  support 
from  Duke  Konrad. 

In  the  north-west  things  were  in  a  somewhat  chaotic 
condition  ;  the  year  1236  was  marked  by  a  disaster  to  the 
Sword  Brethren,  in  which  Volquin  von  Winterstadt  and  a 
large  proportion  of  his  knights  lost  their  lives,  having  ventured 
rashly  into  the  Lit'uanian  country,  where  they  were  sur- 
rounded by  the  enemy  and  cut  to  pieces.  The  following 
year  the  Order  was  amalgamated  with  that  of  the  Teutonic 
Knights,  who  had  established  themselves  in  Prussia  under 
the  Grand-Mastership  of  Herman  von  Salza.  This  province 
had  been  formally  presented  to  them  by  the  Emperor 
Frederick  H.,  by  the  Duke  of  Mazovia,  and  by  Pope  Gregory 
IX.,  finally  by  Pope  Innocent  IV.,  notwithstanding  which, 
the  inhabitants  of  this  much-bestowed  country  offered  a 
vigorous  resistance  to  their  new  masters. 

Out  of  their  fools'  paradise  of  fancied  security  on  their 
eastern  border  the  Russians  were  rudely  aroused  by  the 
news  that  the  Volga  lands  were  being  devastated  by  the 
Mongols,  that  Bolgar  was  in  ashes,  that  the  heads  of  the 
Tartar  horses  had  been  turned  west,  and  that  their  hoofs 
were  now  scoring  broad  tracks  through  the  forests  towards  1237 
Riazan.  On  before  them  journeyed  an  eerie  harbinger  of 
ill,  a  woman  (described  in  the  Chronicles  as  a  sorceress), 
with  two  attendants,  and  bearing  a  demand  from  Batu,  the 
Mongol    Khan,  for  a  tenth    part   of  the   princes'  treasures. 


90  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Batu,  nephew  of  Ogotai  Khan,  who  had  ruled  the  Horde 
since  the  death  of  his  father  Jingis  (1227),  may  well  have 
been  astonished  at  his  own  moderation,  since  he  was  followed 
by  an  army  estimated  at  300,000  men.  But  the  Princes  of 
Riazan  and  Mourom  refused  his  demand  with  a  defiance  of 
the  true  heroic  ring  :  "  When  we  are  dead  you  can  have  it 
all."  "  Just  as  it  afterwards  happened,"  as  the  old  Saxon 
Chronicles  used  to  say.  No  aid  was  forthcoming  from  the 
Grand  Prince  Urii  in  response  to  the  urgent  appeals  from 
Riazan,  and  the  devoted  principality  received  the  full  shock 
of  the  Mongol  attack.  The  town  was  taken  by  assault 
after  six  days'  incessant  fighting  round  the  walls,  and  a 
"  blood  bath,"  to  use  an  appropriate  German  expression, 
ensued  in  the  streets,  houses,  and  churches.  The  Prince  of 
Riazan  and  many  of  his  family  perished  in  the  general 
slaughter.  This  was  in  the  month  of  December,  but,  un- 
deterred by  the  snow  which  choked  the  forest  roads  and 
filled  the  valleys,  Batu  turned  north  towards  Souzdal,  leaving 
behind  him  a  banquet  of  frozen  corpses  for  the  wolves  and 
foxes,  ravens  and  vultures.  Moskva,  Tver,  Souzdal,  and 
Vladimir  fell  one  by  one  into  the  power  of  the  Mongols 
and  experienced  their  cruel  fury.  In  the  latter  city  perished 
Feb.  1238  Vsevolod  and  Mstislav,  sons  of  Urii,  who  had  retreated  to 
the  banks  of  the  Sit,  where  he  turned  to  bay  against  the 
ravagers  of  his  province.  Here,  on  the  3rd  March,  was 
fought  a  battle  big  with  importance  for  Russia,  the  West 
fighting  against  the  East,  the  forest-lands  against  the  steppe, 
Christianity  against  Shamanism.  Urii  had  deferred  the 
decisive  moment  too  long,  and  paid  with  his  life  the  penalty 
of  his  mistake  ;  his  disheartened  soldiers  broke  before  the 
overwhelming  numbers  of  the  Mongols,  and  left  them  un- 
disputed masters  of  the  Grand  Principality.  The  East  had 
won.  Not  for  many  a  long  century,  if  ever,  would  Russia 
shake  off  the  Oriental  influences  which  the  Mongol  victory 
imposed  upon  her.  From  her  history  the  shadow  of  the 
Horde,  one  is  tempted  to  forebode,  in  the  words  of  Poe, 
"  shall  be  lifted  nevermore," 

The  Bishop  of  Rostov,  haunting  the  scene  of  desolation, 


IV 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  91 


found  the  headless  body  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and  conveyed 
it  to  the  church  of  the  Virgin  at  that  town,  where  it  was 
afterwards  joined  by  its  recovered  head  and  interred, 
together  with  the  corpse  of  Vassilko  Konstantinovitch,  who 
also  fell  on  that  fatal  field.  The  triumphant  Mongol  host 
marched  towards  Novgorod,  but  turned  aside  on  seeing  the 
fastnesses  of  swamp  and  lakelet  with  which  that  town  was 
girdled,  and  to  which  it  owed  its  safety.  Less  fortunate 
were  Volok-Lamskie,  Torjhok,  and  Kozelsk,  which  drooped 
one  by  one  before  the  blight  of  conquest  and  devastation. 
To  the  latter  town,  which  resisted  the  enemy  for  two  months 
and  slew  of  them  four  thousand,  the  Mongols  gave  the 
name  of  "  the  evil  city."  Vasili,  its  defending  kniaz,  fight- 
ing to  the  last,  was  said  to  have  been  drowned  in  blood 
— an  end  worthy  of  the  war-lusting  vikings  of  the  twilight 
past. 

Careful  not  to  leave  a  foe  behind  him,  Batu  withdrew 
his  forces  to  the  basin  of  the  Don,  to  hunt  out  the  Kumans 
once  more  from  their  hiding-places,  and  to  rest  his  warriors 
and  their  horses  in  the  steppe- lands  to  which  they  were 
accustomed,  Yaroslav  seized  this  opportunity  to  hasten 
from  Kiev  to  the  evacuated  Souzdalian  province,  of  which 
desolated  region  he  was  now  sovereign.  To  him  fell  the 
task  of  restoring  order  to  a  distracted  country  and  courage 
to  an  affrighted  people.  Despite  the  terror  which  loomed  in 
the  deserts  near  the  Don,  he  was  able  to  give  his  attention 
to  the  succour  of  Smolensk,  over-run  by  the  Lit'uanians, 
whom  he  brilliantly  defeated.  In  the  south,  far  from  making 
common  cause  against  the  national  enemy,  or  seeking  to 
revenge  the  cruelties  which  had  been  meted  out  to  so  many 
of  the  Russian  cities  and  towns,  the  Romanovitch  and 
Olgovitch  princes  renewed  their  private  feuds  and  fief- 
grabbings.  Mikhail  of  Tchernigov  and  Galitz  left  the  latter 
province  in  the  keeping  of  his  son  Rostislav,  while  he  seized 
on  Kiev,  vacated  by  the  new  Prince  of  Souzdal-Vladimir. 
While  Rostislav  and  his  boyarins  were  absent  on  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  Lit'uanians,  the  ever-imminent  Daniel  made 
the    inevitable    eagle- pounce    on    Galitz,    and    despite    the 


92  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

opposition  of  its  bishop,  was  received  with  acclamation  by 
the  people,  who  buzzed  around  him,  in  the  words  of  the 
Chronicle,  "  as  bees  swarm  about  their  queen." 

Meanwhile,  in  the  deserts  of  Astrakhan,  Kotian,  the 
old  Polovtzi  Khan,  had  been  defeated  by  the  Mongols,  and 
fled,  he  and  his,  along  the  wild  steppe  country  till  he  came 
to  the  Karpathian  range  and  sought  refuge  in  the  Hungarian 
kingdom.  Russia  no  longer  offered  a  safe  retreat.  Swiftly 
and  remorselessly  the  death-dealing  Horde  bore  down  on 
the  middle  provinces,  and  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land  bishops  and  priests  and  people  knelt  in  agonised 
supplication  to  their  all-powerful  God  to  deliver  them  from 
their  savage  enemies.  From  cathedral,  church,  and  road- 
side shrine  wails  the  pitiful  litany,  "  Save  us  from  the 
infidels  !  "  Candles  burn  and  incense  swings,  and  anguish- 
stricken  hearts  yearn  out  their  prayer,  "  Save  us  from  the 
infidels  !  "     Call  Him  louder.      Perchance  He  sleepeth. 

Tchernigov  and  Pcreyaslavl  experienced  the  common 
fate,  the  general  ruin  ;  town  and  country  alike  suffered  the 
affliction  of  fire  and  sword  and  rapine.  Shuddering  villagers, 
lying  awake  around  their  flickering  hearths  at  night,  would 
hear  the  uneasy  barking  of  their  watch-dogs,  scenting  or 
seeing  something  not  yet  palpable  to  human  senses  ;  and 
later  the  house-pigeons  would  fly  far  and  wildly  over  a 
landscape  lit  up  by  a  glow  that  was  not  the  dawn. 

After  a  short  respite,  while  the  destroyers  had  turned 
aside  again  to  the  deserts  of  the  Don,  Central  Russia  once 
more  became  the  scene  of  their  ravaging.  It  was  now  the 
turn  of  Kiev  to  become  the  miserable  victim  of  their 
attentions.  Around  the  mother  of  Russian  cities  (a  very 
Niobe  under  present  circumstances),  the  sacred  site  of  the 
tombs  and  relics  of  the  grand  old  princes,  the  resting-place 
of  "  all  the  glories,"  gathered  a  host  that  blackened  the  face 
of  the  country  for  miles  round.  Batu  himself,  Mengu  and 
Kujuk,  sons  of  Ogatai  (the  Grand  Khan),  and  five  other 
princes  of  the  family  of  Jingis,  came  to  help  the  city  on  the 
Dniepr  to  its  doom.  Mikhail  of  Tchernigov  fled  to  Hungary 
on  the  approach   of  the  enemy,  and  even  the  daring  Daniel 


IV  THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  93 

Romanovitch  preferred  not  to  shut  himself  up  like  a  trapped 
rat  in  Kiev  or  Galitz,  and  sought  refuge  with  King  Bela, 
leaving,  however,  in  the  former  town  his  voevoda  Dimitri  to 
direct  the  defence.  Happy  had  it  been  for  the  inhabitants 
had  they  all  fled  from  the  death-trap.  Within  the  walls 
men  could  scarce  hear  themselves  speak  for  the  floating  din 
of  creaking  carts,  bellowing  oxen,  groaning  camels,  neighing 
and  stamping  horses,  and  yelling  Mongols  which  resounded 
on  all  sides.  Against  the  Polish  gate  day  and  night  the 
battering-rams  crashed  and  splintered,  till  a  breach  was  1240 
effected  by  which  the  besiegers  entered.  S.  Sofia  had 
become  the  last  refuge  of  the  defenders,  but  the  roof,  crowded 
with  fugitives,  gave  way  beneath  the  pressure,  and  forestalled 
the  vengeance  of  the  Mongols.  Men,  women,  and  infants, 
houses,  churches,  tombs,  and  shrines  became  a  prey  to  the 
children  of  the  desert,  a  vast  hecatomb  to  grace  the  funeral 
pyre  of  the  old  Russia.  The  famous  monastery  of 
Petcherski,  where  the  monk  Nestor  wrote  his  Chronicle, 
shared  the  general  destruction,  and  from  amid  its  crashing 
ruins  the  pagans  seized  the  massive  gold  cross  which  had 
adorned  its  cupola. 

From  this  victory  the  Horde  pressed  on  through  Volhynia 
and  Galicia  ;  Vladimir,  Galitz,  and  other  Red  Russian  towns 
fell  beneath  their  attack,  and  then  the  conquering  host 
branched  off  into  two  divisions  ;  one,  under  the  command  of 
Batu,  invaded  Hungary  ;  the  other,  led  by  Baidar  and  Kaidu 
(sons  of  Jagatai),  carried  desolation  into  the  Polish  provinces. 
The  storm,  sack,  and  burning  of  Lublin,  Zawikhost,  Sendomir, 
and  Krakow,  and  the  ravaging  of  the  province  of  Breslau 
led  up  to  the  pitched  battle  of  Liegnitz,  where  the  might  of 
Poland  measured  itself  in  desperate  struggle  with  the  Mongol 
wave.  On  the  Christian  side  stood  Duke  Henry  H.  of 
Silesia;  Boleslav,  son  of  the  Markgraf  of  Moravia;  Miecislav, 
Duke  of  Ratibor  ;  and  Poppon  d'Osterna,  Provincial  Master 
(in  Prussia)  of  the  Teutonic  Order.  Outnumbered  by  the 
Mongols,  the  Poles  fought  valiantly  and  with  effect,  till  at 
last  their  spirit  failed  them  ;  the  great  Tuk  banner,  lurid 
with  flaring  naphtha,  and  decorated  with  two  gleaming  sheep 


94  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

bones,  transversely  crossed,  seemed  to  reproduce,  amid 
unholy  goblin  flames,  their  own  mystic  symbol.  The 
powers  of  darkness  and  the  seething  masses  of  human  foes 
were  too  formidable  a  combination  to  fight  against,  and  the 
chivalry  of  Poland  broke  and  fled.  Duke  Henry  on  that 
awful  night  fought  savagely  as  he  fled,  but  was  torn  down 
at  length  by  his  untiring  pursuers.  Many  a  count  and 
palatine  shared  his  fate ;  from  every  corpse  the  savage 
victors  cut  an  ear,  and  nine  sacks  full  were  sent  to  the 
Grand  Khan,  together  with  the  head  of  Duke  Henry,  as  a 
record  of  the  slain.^  In  tracing  the  Mongol  march  of 
devastation  through  Silesia,  Moravia,  and  Transylvania  into 
Hungary,  it  is  only  necessary  to  observe  that  wholesale 
slaughter,  destruction,  and  sweeping  victory  continued  to 
characterise  the  advance  of  the  Horde.^  In  Hungary  men 
had  awaited  with  cold  and  anxious  hearts  the  onfall  of  the 
Mongols.  Had  they  not  heard  with  sorrow  and  foreboding 
at  Christmas-tide  last  year  the  doleful  intelligence  of  the 
fall  of  Kiev  ?  And  the  wild  stories  of  each  fresh  batch  of 
fugitives  —  Kumans,  Russians,  Poles,  Silesians — increased 
the  terror  of  the  Mongol  name  and  brought  their  armies 
nearer.  The  King  rallied  his  nobles  round  him  (none  too 
well-affected  though  they  were)  in  a  determined  effort  to 
stem  this  swarthy  torrent  that  threatened  to  submerge  the 
country.  The  prelates  of  the  realm,  good  old  fighting 
churchmen  as  they  were,  led  their  vassals  in  person  to  the 
fight.  On  the  field  of  Mohi  (name  strangely  like  that  of 
the  other  fatal  battle  in  their  history),  on  the  banks  of  the 
Saj6,  the  cross  of  S.  Stefan  went  down  before  the  yak- 
tailed  Tuk,  and  the  nomad  warriors  triumphed  over  the 
Magyar  chivalry.      Hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  the  Hungarians 

^  Both  Von  Hammer-Purgstall  {Geschichte  der  Goldenen  Horde)  and  Howorth 
allude  to  Poppon  as  Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  a  post  held  at  that 
date  by  Konrad  of  Thuringen  ;  also  both  include  him  among  the  slain,  though 
the  former  has  a  note  to  the  effect  that  this  could  not  have  been  Poppon  "of 
Osterino,"  who  died  much  later.  Poppon  of  Osterna  was  at  this  date  Provincial 
or  Land-master  in  Prussia,  and  lived  to  be  elected  Grand  Master  in  1 253. 

-  Howorth,  following  Wolff,  discredits  the  widely  -  accepted  story  of  a 
Bohemian  victory  over  the  Mongols  at  Olmutz,  and  refers  the  event  to  a  success 
over  the  Hungarians  and  Kumans  twelve  years  later. 


IV  THE  COMING  OF  THE  MONGOLS  95 

were  powerless ;  "  it  was  not  a  battle,  but  a  butchery."  ^  Bela 
fled  to  the  Karpathians,  thence  to  Austria  ;  his  brother 
Kalman  reached  Kroatia,  where  he  died  of  his  wounds. 
Among  the  slain  were  the  Archbishops  Mathias  of  Gran 
and  Ugolin  of  Kalocza,  the  Bishops  of  Raab,  Neutra,  and 
Siebenbiirgen,  and  counts  and  nobles  galore,  the  flower  of 
Hungarian  aristocracy.  Surely  not  to  be  reckoned  as  "  the 
weak  and  the  false,"  "  the  fool  and  the  knave."  Bela, 
betrayed  by  the  Duke  of  Austria  and  hunted  from  one 
refuge  to  another  by  the  remorseless  enemy,  took  ship  from 
the  Dalmatian  coast  and  left  his  kingdom  in  the  hands  of 
Batu.  Southern  Hungary,  Servia,  Dalmatia,  and  parts  of 
Bulgaria  were  ravaged  by  detachments  of  the  Horde,  but 
south  of  Albania  and  west  of  Austria  they  do  not  appear 
to  have  penetrated.  The  news  of  the  death  of  the  Grand 
Khan  Ogatai,  and  possibly  the  increasing  difficulty  of 
supporting  so  large  a  body  of  men  in  a  devastated  country, 
determined  Batu  to  withdraw  his  hosts  from  the  scene  of 
their  conquests,  and  the  Mongol  swarms  melted  away  from 
the  erstwhile  fertile  lands  which  they  had  turned  into  a 
howling  wilderness.  Bela  returned  to  take  possession  of  his 
stricken  kingdom,  confronted  on  all  sides  by  evidences  of 
the  great  calamity  ;  "the  highways  were  grown  with  grass, 
the  fields  were  white  with  bones,  and  here  and  there  for 
more  than  a  day's  journey  round,  no  living  soul." "  In 
distant  corners  of  Europe  men  shuddered  at  the  tales  that 
were  told  of  these  fearsome  sons  of  the  desert ;  in  marvel- 
loving  Constantinople  it  was  gravely  averred  that  they  had 
the  heads  of  dogs  and  fed  upon  human  flesh,  and  the 
dread  of  their  coming  kept  the  fishermen  of  Sweden  and 
Friesland  from  attending  the  herring-market  on  the  English 
coast,  thereby  demoralising  prices.^ 

^  Von  Hammer- Purgstall,  Geschichte  der  Goldenen  Horde. 

^  Laszlo  Szalay,  Geschichte  Ungarns. 

^  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 


CHAPTER  V 


"THE  YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN 


)) 


While  the  Golden  Horde  was  dealing  out  death  and 
destruction  in  the  neighbouring  western  kingdoms,  Russia 
was  exerting  her  powers  of  recuperation  to  regain  some  of 
the  life  that  had  been  crushed  out  of  her.  Like  unscathed 
pheasants  stealing  back  one  by  one  to  the  coverts  from  which 
the  beaters  had  sent  them  whirring  forth,  the  fugitive  princes 
returned  to  the  wrecks  of  their  provinces.  Daniel  re-estab- 
lished himself  at  Galitz,  Mikhail  at  Kiev  ;  Tchernigov  was 
still  infested  by  roving  bodies  of  Mongols.  Meanwhile  the 
Novgorodskic,  in  their  own  little  world  in  the  North,  pursued 
as  usual  a  political  existence  isolated  from  that  of  Central 
and  Eastern  Russia.  On  the  top  of  their  quarrels  with  the 
German  knights  they  became  involved  in  a  question  of 
frontier  lands  with  the  crown  of  Sweden,  Under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Skandinavian  Prince  Birger,  an  army  of  Swedes, 
Norwegians,  and  Finns  disembarked  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Ijhora,  an  affluent  of  the  Neva,  and  threatened  an  attack 
upon  Ladoga.  Aleksandr  Yaroslavitch,  the  young  Prince  of 
Novgorod,  gathering  together  the  few  men  at  his  disposal, 
1240  flung  himself  on  the  Swedish  camp  and  gained  a  brilliant 
victory,  wounding  Birger  himself  in  the  face  with  his  lance. 
In  honour  of  which  battle  he  ever  after  bore  the  added  name 
of  Nevski  ("  of  the  Neva  "). 

While  the  young  Yaroslavitch  waged  brilliant,  if  not 
particularly  fruitful,  campaigns  against  German  and  Lit'uanian 
enemies,  matters  were  settling  down  in  gloomy  mould  in 
the  other  Russian  provinces.      The  great  Mongol  inundation, 


CH.  V      "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN  97 


which  had  submerged  the  Palearctic  region  (no  less  compre- 
hensive definition  is  adequate),  from  the  basin  of  the  Amur 
to  the  Dalmatian  sea-board,  had  receded  so  far  as  to  leave 
the  Polish,  Hungarian,  and  Bulgarian  lands  high  and  dry, 
though  strewn  with  the  wreckage  of  its  violence.  But  here 
the  shrinkage  stopped.  The  conqueror  Batu  halted  his 
retiring  hordes  in  the  steppe-land  of  the  lower  Volga,  on  the 
left  bank  of  which  river  he  established  his  camp-city,  Sarai. 
From  here  he  was  able  to  maintain  the  ascendancy  which 
his  arms  had  won  him  over  the  Russian  princes,  and  to 
guard  the  supremacy  of  the  great  Mongol  Empire  in  the 
western  portions  of  its  extensive  territory.  And  now  comes 
perhaps  the  saddest  period  of  Russian  history — certainly  the 
meanest.  The  locust-plague  that  had  swept  through  the 
land  had  blighted  the  fair  promise  of  its  growth  ;  Russia 
was  no  longer  free,  and  her  princes  ruled,  not  by  the  grace 
of  God,  but  by  favour  of  the  Grand  Khan,  Kuyuk,  last  heard 
of  before  the  crumbling  walls  of  Kiev.  To  the  peasantry, 
perhaps,  it  mattered  little  in  whose  name  they  were  taxed  or 
pillaged,  whether  they  beat  the  forehead  to  Russian  kniaz 
or  Mongol  khan  ;  but  to  the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  proud  of 
their  heirship  of  the  throne  of  Rurik,  treasuring  their  religion 
as  a  personal  glory-reflecting  possession,  jealous  of  their 
standing  with  the  royal  houses  of  Europe,  it  was  a  terrible 
and  bitter  humiliation  to  have  to  own  allegiance  to  this 
desert  chief,  this  Asiatic  barbarian,  as  he  must  have  been  in 
their  eyes,  this  pagan  sun -worshipper,  who  derived  his 
authority  neither  from  the  keys  of  S.  Peter  nor  from  the 
sceptre  of  the  Caesars.  Yet,  so  adaptable  to  altered  circum- 
stances is  nature,  that  even  this  galling  yoke  ceased  after  a 
while  to  deaden  the  political  energies  of  its  wearers,  which 
found  vent,  unhappily,  not  in  struggles  towards  emancipation, 
but  in  a  renewal  of  the  old  miserable  squabbles  between 
prince  and  prince.  In  this  internal  strife  the  power  of  the 
Khan  was  even  invoked  to  overwhelm  an  opponent,  a  state 
of  things  which,  however  degrading  it  may  appear,  is  not 
unique  in  the  history  of  peoples,  and  proud  peoples  moreover. 
The  Jewish  factions  in  the  days  of  Josephus,  groaning  under 

H 


98  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  abhorred  dominion  of  Rome,  expended  their  energies  in 
fighting  each  other  with  any  weapon  that  came  to  hand, 
including  the  Gentile-wielded  authority,  and  in  this  same 
thirteenth  century  the  Scottish  nobles  did  not  scruple  to  turn 
the  English  suzerainty  to  account  in  their  party  schemes  and 
feuds. 
1244  The  first  to  tender  his  submission  at  the  Court  of  the 
Mongol  chief  was  Yaroslav,  Grand  Prince  of  Souzdal,  whom 
Batu  confirmed  in  his  principality  and  added  thereto  that  of 
Kiev.  Two  years  later,  however,  Yaroslav  was  required  to 
present  himself  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Grand  Khan,  in 
the  Amur  valley,  where  he  bowed  the  knee  before  his  Mongol 
master  and  obtained  permission  to  return  to  his  province, 
dying,  however,  before  the  weary  homeward  journey  was 
accomplished.  Mikhail  of  Tchernigov,  forced  to  undertake 
the  same  humiliating  pilgrimage,  died  at  the  hands  of  the 
Mongol  priests,  a  martyr  to  his  religion.  His  son  Rostislav, 
a  voluntary  exile  in  Hungary,  became  Ban  of  Sclavonia  and 
of  Makhov  in  Bosnia.^  Daniel  of  Galitz,  farthest  removed 
from  the  power  of  the  Khan,  was  one  of  the  last  to  surrender 
his  independence  and  journey  across  Russia  to  the  tent  of 
Batu,  who  received  him  with  more  consideration  than  had 
been  shown  to  the  other  princes.  Little  indeed  might  such 
humouring  avail  to  gild  the  bitter  pill,  that  the  proud 
Romanovitch,  whose  favour  had  been  sought  by  princes  and 
Pope,  should  go  forth  from  the  Mongol  presence  wearing  the 
title,  "  Servant  of  the  Grand  Khan."  The  enormous  fighting- 
strength  at  the  disposal  of  the  conquerors,  the  rapidity  with 
which  it  could  be  put  in  motion,  and  the  terror  inspired  b\' 
a  long  succession  of  victories  and  attendant  cruelties,  helped 
to  uphold  their  authority  as  it  had  contributed  to  the  ease  of 
their  conquests.  "  In  Asia  and  Eastern  Europe  scarcely  a 
dog  might  bark  without  Mongol  leave,  from  the  borders  of 
Poland  and  the  coast  of  Cilicia  to  the  Amur  and  the  Yellow 
Sea."  -  Even  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  the  Neva  found  it 
expedient  to  toil  through  some  thousand  miles  of  desert  to 

^  A.  M.  H.  J.  Stockvis,  Manuel  dliistoire,  de  genealogie,  etc. 
2  Colonel  Yule,  The  Book  of  Ser  Marco  Polo. 


I( 


THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN"         99 


the  habitation  of  the  Grand  Khan,  and  pay  the  same  dis- 
tasteful homage  to  the  great  barbarian.  In  his  absence 
important  events  were  happening  at  Souzdal.  His  uncle, 
Sviatoslav,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  Grand  Principality  on 
the  death  of  Yaroslav,  was  chased  out  of  this  dignity  by  1248 
Mikhail,  Aleksandr's  younger  brother.  The  same  winter 
Mikhail  lost  his  life  in  battle  with  the  Lit'uanians.  His 
place  was  filled  by  Andrei,  another  brother,  who  had  just 
returned  with  Aleksandr  from  the  eastern  pilgrimage.  While 
the  greater  part  of  Russia  was  passing  into  the  hands  of  the 
Souzdal  family,  Daniel  was  leaning  more  and  more  towards 
Western  Europe  and  dallying  openly  with  the  Pope.  No 
stone  was  left  unturned  by  the  strenuous  Pontiff  (Innocent 
IV.)  to  tempt  the  Galician  Prince  into  the  Roman  com- 
munion, and  Daniel  certainly  nibbled  at  the  bait.  Russia 
had  become  a  province  of  Tartary  ;  Constantinople  no  longer 
harboured  the  Orthodox  faith  ;  only  in  Catholic  Europe  did 
the  worship  of  Jesus  and  the  glory  of  princes  go  hand  in 
hand.  Hence  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  Russian 
prince  should  lose  heart  in  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  and  seek 
for  support  against  the  Mongols  in  an  alliance  with  the  Holy 
See  and  neighbouring  Catholic  powers.  In  1254  matters 
had  so  far  progressed  in  this  direction  that,  after  much  beating 
about  the  bush  on  both  sides,  the  Abbot  of  Messina,  in  the 
capacity  of  Papal  Legate,  placed  on  Daniel's  head  a  royal 
crown  and  hailed  him  King  of  Galicia.  Innocent  followed 
this  up  by  an  appeal  to  the  sovereign  Princes  of  Bohemia, 
Poland,  etc.,  to  unite  with  Daniel  in  a  crusade  against  the 
Mongols  ;  but  Catholic  Christendom  was  at  that  moment 
too  divided  against  itself,  in  the  strife  of  the  Papacy  with  the 
Hohenstaufen  emperors,  to  show  a  united  front  to  any  enemy. 
The  Russian  Prince,  who  had  not  definitely  committed  him- 
self to  a  change  of  creed,  saw  that  he  was  not  likely  to  obtain 
any  substantial  support  from  the  western  princes,  and  broke 
off  relations  with  Rome.-^  In  the  north  Aleksandr  was 
seeking  to  conserve  his  power  and  that  of  his  family  by  a 
different  policy — by  cultivating  a  good  understanding,  namely, 

1  Karamzin. 


lOO  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

with  the  rulers  of  the  Horde.  Had  he  chosen  the  more  heroic 
line  of  resistance,  and  sacrificed  his  religious  scruples  to  the 
Latin  Pope  rather  than  to  the  Mongol  Khan,  he  might,  with 
the  alliance  of  the  Swedes  and  Teutons,  have  defied  the 
armies  of  the  desert  from  behind  the  swampy  forests  which 
girdled  Novgorod.  This  would  have  meant,  however,  aban- 
doning Kiev  and  Souzdal  as  well  as  the  Orthodox  faith, 
possessions  which  he  was  able  to  retain  by  acquiescing  in 
the  Mongol  supremacy.  His  less  subservient,  or  less  tactful 
(1252)  brother,  Andrei,  had  found  it  necessary  to  depart  hurriedly 
from  the  Grand  Principality,  before  the  advent  of  the  Horde's 
agents,  sent  to  punish  him  for  insubordination  to  the  Grand 
Khan  ;  Aleksandr,  by  a  friendly  visit  to  Sardak  (son  of  Batu), 
obtained  the  reversion  of  the  escheated  fiefs,  and  thereby 
sealed  his  obligation  to  his  Tartar  masters.^  Five  years 
later  he  had  to  acquiesce  in  another  humiliation,  the  num- 
bering and  taxing  of  his  provinces  by  the  agents  of  the  new 
Khan  Berke.  This  was  followed  in  due  course  by  a  command 
that  Novgorod  should  submit  to  the  same  operation,  and 
Aleksandr,  who  had  defended  that  city  against  all  comers, 
had  now  to  undertake  the  unpleasant  task  of  reconciling  the 
citizens  to  this  indignity.  Velikie  Novgorod  hummed  like 
a  hive  at  the  shameful  proposal.  Alone  of  all  the  Russian 
lands  she  had  kept  her  liberty  ;  she  had  checked  the  en- 
croachments of  Sweden  and  the  missionary  efiforts  of  the 
German  military  Orders  ;  had  kept  the  House  of  Souzdal  on 
its  good  behaviour,  and  dismissed  princes,  posadniks,  and 
archbishops  with  a  prodigality  of  independence  ;  and  now,  at 
the  hands  of  her  well-beloved  Nevski,  this  hateful  thing  was 
thrust  upon  her.  No  wonder  the  "  proud  city  of  the  waters  " 
throbbed  with  indignation,  and  the  great  bell  of  Yaroslav 
echoed  the  popular  tumult.  But  the  insistence  of  the  Khan, 
coupled  with  the  Grand  Prince's  influence,  wore  down  the 
noisy  opposition,  and  the  Novgorodskie,  spent  with  fury, 
admitted  the  Mongol  assessors  into  their  houses,  and  became 
1259  the  tributaries  of  the  Golden  Horde. 

While    Aleksandr    had    been    employed    in    linking   the 
1  S.  Solov'ev,  Istoriya  Rossie.     Karamzin. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN  loi 

northern  province  on  to  the  Mongol  chain,  Daniel  had  been 
making  tentative  experiments  in  the  direction  of  freedom, 
which  broucrht  a  considerable  detachment  of  the  Horde 
galloping  into  his  territory.  The  Galician  Prince  averted 
the  storm  by  a  hasty  submission,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  monster  he  had  called  up  vent  its  fury  on  his 
doubtful  allies,  the  Lit'uanians.  But  the  conquest  of  a  (1258) 
people  who  had  no  towns  worth  speaking  of,  and  who  were 
adepts  in  the  art  of  eluding  pursuit,  did  not  exhaust  the 
Mongol  craving  for  loot  and  slaughter,  and  the  following 
year  found  them  still  on  the  war-path,  this  time  in  Polish 
territory.  "  From  Lublin  they  circled  round  to  Zavikhvost, 
passed  across  the  Vistula,  captured  Sendomir  and  the  town 
of  Listz."  ^  Then,  having  given  Daniel  an  object-lesson  in 
obedience,  the  Horde  melted  away  into  the  steppe — and  the 
Lit'uanians  issued  anew  from  their  fastnesses  and  renewed 
their  border  warfare  in  the  surrounding  lands.  The  attack 
of  the  Mongols  adds  another  item  to  the  long  list  of  enemies 
against  whom  these  irrepressible  people  had  to  battle  for 
their  liberty  and  their  existence.  Livlandish  knights,  the 
citizens  of  Pskov  and  Novgorod,  the  Princes  of  Polotzk, 
Souzdal,  and  Galitz,  the  palatines  of  Mazovia,  and  now  the 
nomads  of  the  desert,  battered  and  smote  perseveringly  upon 
this  pre-eminently  "  buffer  State,"  whose  security  lay  partly 
in  the  nature  of  its  physical  conformation,  partly  in  the  dis- 
union of  its  enemies.  In  the  fierce  struggle  for  life  and 
growth  which  was  going  on  in  this  corner  of  Europe  the 
result  would  necessarily  be  a  survival  of  the  fittest,  and 
which  that  fittest  was  (under  the  conditions  then  obtaining) 
a  glance  at  a  graduated  political  map  of  the  region  will 
demonstrate.^  The  very  stress  of  external  attack  which 
bore  upon  them  from  all  sides,  drove  the  Lit'uanians  into 
closer  fusion  and  welded  them  together  under  the  leadership 
of  a  single  chief  In  the  person  of  Mindovg  appears  the 
first  historically  reliable  Duke  of  Lit'uania,  and  under  his 
auspices  spring  up  the  towns,  or  strongholds,  of  Kernov  and 

"^  N.  P.  Dashkevitch,  Knazeiiie  Daniela  Galitznago. 
-  E.  A.  Freeman,  Historical  Geography  of  Europe. 


I02  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap- 

Grodno.  A  few  years  later  his  nephew  Tovtivl  is  installed, 
whether  by  conquest  or  election  is  not  clear,  in  the  neighbour- 
ing Russian  kniazdom  of  Polotzk.  In  1262  occurs  the  first 
recorded  ags-ressive  alliance  between  the  Russians  and 
Lit'uanians ;  during  one  of  Aleksandr  Nevski's  frequent 
pilgrimages  to  the  Mongol  headquarters,  his  son  Dimitri  and 
his  brother  Yaroslav  (Prince  of  Tver),  in  conjunction  with 
Mindovg  and  Tovtivl,  banded  their  forces  together  in  an 
attack  on  Uriev,  called  by  the  Germans  Dorpat.  This  town, 
which  had  long  been  a  bone  of  contention  between  the 
Knights  of  Jesus  and  the  north  Russian  princes,  and  had 
experienced  more  than  once  the  fate  of  a  border  burg, 
suffered  considerably  on  this  occasion,  and  its  blazing  out- 
works lit  home  the  booty -laden  raiders  —  roused  also  to 
vengeance,  according  to  some  accounts,  the  Landmaster 
Werner  von  Breithausen,  who  led  his  knights,  burning  and 
plundering,  into  Russian  land  till  failing  strength  constrained 
him  to  return  homewards.^ 

The  return  of  Aleksandr  from  Sarai,  where  he  had  for 
several  months  been  the  guest — or  prisoner — of  the  Khan, 
was  soon  followed  by  his  death,  in  November  1263 — an 
event  which,  according  to  some  of  the  older  Russian  historians, 
was  universally  wept  and  deplored  by  his  bereaved  subjects. 
The  people  of  Novgorod,  with  whom  he  should  have  been 
especially  popular,  seem  to  have  successfully  dissembled  their 
grief,  and  marked  their  attachment  to  his  memory  by  expel- 
ling his  son  Dimitri,  killing  Mikhail  Stcfanovitch,  the 
posadnik  of  his  choosing,  and  electing  to  that  office  Mikhail 
Thedorovitch,  a  boyarin  opposed  to  the  late  Prince's  interests. 
Having  thus  thoroughly  broken  "  off  with  the  old  love,"  they 
dispatched  their  new  posadnik  and  a  deputation  of  citizens 
to  offer  their  allegiance  to  Yaroslav,  who  had  succeeded, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Khan,  to  the  grand  princedom  ; 
Andrei,  who  lay  under  the  displeasure  of  the  Horde,  having 
1264  further  disqualified  himself  by  dying  a  few  months  after  his 
brother.  The  terms  of  the  deed  by  which  Yaroslav  was 
invited  to  assume  the  sovereignty  of  Novgorod  are  interesting 

*  S.  Solov'ev,  Istoriya  Rossie. 


1 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        103 

as  throwing  valuable  light  on  the  position  occupied  by  the 
city  at  that  period.  The  Prince  was  to  swear  by  the  cross 
to  govern  Novgorod  "  conformably  to  her  ancient  laws  "  ; 
to  content  himself  with  presents  from  the  country  districts 
and  dependencies,  in  place  of  levying  tribute  ;  to  govern 
them  only  by  Novgorodian  magistrates,  chosen  with  the 
assent  of  the  posadnik  ;  he  was  only  permitted  to  visit  the 
vassal  town  of  Staraia  Rousa  in  the  autumn,  while  Ladoga 
was  out  of  bounds  for  himself  or  any  member  of  his  house- 
hold, except  his  fisherman  and  brewer ;  his  judicial  and 
domestic  officials  were  to  pay  "  with  money  "  for  the  use  of 
horses  on  their  travels,  but  the  military  couriers  were  per- 
mitted to  impress  what  they  wanted  in  this  respect  for  their 
service  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  engaged  that  Novgorodian 
merchants  journeying  in  the  Grand  Principality  were  to  pay 
"  two  squirrel-skins  for  boat,  cart,  and  measure  of  flax  or 
hops."  "  In  consequence,  and  for  guarantee  that  you  execute 
these  conditions,  kiss  you  the  holy  cross  in  presence  of  the 
ambassadors  of  Novgorod  :  on  that.  Prince,  we  salute  you." 
This  document,  which  was  made  out  in  the  name  of  the 
Archbishop,  posadnik,  boyarins,  and  people  of  Novgorod, 
"  from  the  oldest  to  the  youngest "  (a  Russian  equivalent  for 
high  and  low,  or  great  and  small),  was  subscribed  to  by  1265 
Yaroslav,  who  thereon  became  Prince  of  Novgorod.  Among 
other  things  to  be  gleaned  from  this  covenant  is  the  fact 
that  the  Prince  was  supposed  to  be  supported  "  by  voluntary 
contributions  "  ;  that  minute  fiscal  and  domestic  regulations 
(similar  in  nature  to  those  existing  in  some  of  the  Swiss 
cantons  in  the  Middle  Ages)  were  enforced  in  the  lands  of 
the  republic  and  in  relation  with  other  Russian  provinces  ; 
and  that  fur-pelts  had  not  yet  been  wholly  displaced,  as  a 
medium  of  payment,  by  the  circulation  of  money.  The 
petty  and  irritating  nature  of  some  of  these  restrictions  may 
have  been  the  effect,  rather  than  the  cause,  of  the  long  series 
of  quarrels  between  princes  and  citizens,  but  they  could 
hardly  fail  to  produce  friction  under  the  most  favourable 
circumstances.  Yaroslav  soon  had  proof  of  the  independent 
dispositions  of  his  northern  subjects,  who  peremptorily  thwarted 


104  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


his  design  for  a  campaign  against  the  sister  republic  of 
Pskov,  which  had  elected  a  Lit'uanian  chief  as  its  ruler 
without  consulting  the  Grand  Prince.  The  latter  soon  after 
returned  to  the  more  congenial  atmosphere  of  Vladimir, 
leaving  as  his  representative  his  nephew,  Urii  Andreievitch. 
Relieved  of  the  presence  of  the  Velikie-kniaz,  the  Novgorod- 
skie,  allied  with  Dovmont,  the  aforesaid  Prince  of  Pskov, 
marched  with  an  army  30,000  strong,  furnished  with 
battering-rams  and  other  siege  engines,  into  the  charmed 
region  of  the  Baltic  provinces,  where  German  knights,  the 
Archbishops  of  Riga,  Danes,  Swedes,  Lit'uanians,  and  Russians 
disputed  over  and  over  again,  with  never-flagging  zest,  every 
corner  of  that  most  debatable  land.  The  objective  of  the 
Russ- Lit'uanian  army  (with  which  marched  Dimitri,  the 
whilom  Prince  of  Novgorod),  was  the  Dane-held  town  of 
Rakovor  (Wesenberg),  in  Estland  ;  as  they  approached  the 
town,  however,  the  Russians  found  themselves  confronted  by 
a  strong  force  of  "  the  gentlemen  of  God  "  (as  they  magnani- 
mously, or  satirically,  styled  the  Teutonic  knights),  under 
the  command  of  their  Landmaster,  von  Rodenstein — the  last 
people  they  were  anxious  to  meet.  The  dark  winter  day 
(i8th  February  1268)  was  all  too  short  to  decide  the  furious 
combat  which  ensued,  and  many  a  noted  leader,  many  a 
thousand  men-at-arms,  fell  on  either  side  without  the  issue 
being  settled  one  way  or  the  other.  The  Novgorodskie  lost 
their  posadnik  and  the  tisyaszhnik  ^  Kodrat,  while  on  the 
other  side  Alexander,  Bishop  of  Dorpat,  was  among  the  slain. 
Better  armed  and  better  disciplined,  it  is  probable  that  the 
knights  of  the  Order  inflicted  the  heavier  loss  on  their 
opponents,  and  the  Russians  had  to  abandon  their  projected 
attack  on  Rakovor.  The  spring  of  the  next  year  brought 
von  Rodenstein  and  his  pied -mantled  warriors  into  the 
territory  of  Pskov,  where  they  burnt  Izborsk,  the  old  pre- 
Rurikian  town  on  the  Lake  Peipus,  and  stormed  Pskov  itself. 
Its  Lit'uanian  Prince  was  a  match  for  the  Teutons,  and  for 
ten  days  steel  and  iron  and  stone  clashed  and  hurtled  round 
the    tottering    ramparts.      Dovmont    himself   wounded    the 

1  Commander  of  a  thousand  men. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        105 

Landmaster,  and  held  the  enemy  at  bay  till  the  bear-blazoned 
standard  of  Velikie  Novgorod  waved  in  the  distance  and 
warned  the  knights  to  retire  beyond  the  border.  The 
Order,  however,  by  a  treaty  with  the  powerful  Hanse  city  of 
Lubeck,  was  able  to  strike  Novgorod  in  a  more  vulnerable 
spot  than  the  shores  of  Lake  Peipus,  and  a  combination 
directed  against  her  shipping  caused  her  to  conclude  a  peace 
with  her  German  neighbours.^ 

This  war,  in  which  both  sides  had  lost  heavily  in  men, 
while  neither  had  gained  any  distinct  advantage,  had  been 
sustained  by  Novgorod  without  the  assistance  and  without 
the  sanction  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and  now  that  it  had  come 
to  a  lame  conclusion  mutual  recriminations  were  indulged  in 
by  the  citizens  and  by  Yaroslav.  The  sins  of  the  father 
were  visited  on  the  child,  so  to  speak,  and  Urii,  like  so  many 
of  his  forerunners,  was  "  shown  the  way "  out  of  the  city,  1270 
and  the  old  quarrel  between  the  Princes  of  Souzdal  and  the 
great  republic  broke  out  anew.  In  all  the  misery  and 
humiliation  of  their  subject  position  the  Russians  clung  to 
the  luxury  of  their  private  feuds,  as  a  fate-cursed  man  takes 
to  a  soothing  narcotic.  Yaroslav  even  rose  to  the  brilliantly 
despicable  idea  of  turning  the  national  misfortune  to  account 
by  employing  the  Mongol  hordes  to  bear  upon  the  defensive 
array  of  the  turbulent  city.  A  boyarin  sent  by  him  to 
Sarai  depicted  the  attitude  of  the  citizens  as  one  of  revolt 
against  the  Grand  Prince  and  the  authority  of  the  Horde, 
and  invoked  the  aid  of  the  Khan  to  quench  this  dangerous 
disaffection.  Fortunately  for  the  men  of  Novgorod  they 
had  a  friend  at  court  in  the  person  of  Vasili,  the  Grand 
Prince's  youngest  brother,  who  stated  their  side  of  the  case 
and  obtained  the  recall  of  the  punitive  force  which  had  been 
dispatched  against  them."  The  credit  of  restoring  good 
relations  between  the  proud  republic  and  the  irritated  Prince 
rests  with  the  Metropolitan  Kirill,  who  was  ever  ready  to 
exert  the  influence  of  his  office  in  the  interests  of  peace. 

While  these  events  had  been  passing  in  the  north,  Daniel 

1   Ceschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen.     Karamzin.     S.  Solov'ev. 

2  Karamzin. 


io6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Romanovitch  had  quietly  slipped  out  of  existence,  the  date 
of  his  death  being  vaguely  fixed  "between  1264-1266."^ 
Taking  into  consideration  the  very  open  question  which  the 
possession  of  his  province  had  been  when  he  first  enforced 
his  claims  upon  it,  the  scant  notice  which  his  death  attracted 
was  rather  a  compliment  to  his  statecraft.  "  King  of  Galitz," 
where  his  forerunners  had  been  simply  princes,  he  was  prob- 
ably the  only  sovereign  in  Europe  who  had  outwitted 
Innocent  IV.,  and  swallowed  unconcernedly  the  bait  which 
was  to  have  lured  him  into  the  Catholic  fold.  Of  his  four 
sons,  Roman  (who  had  been  successively  dazzled,  utilised, 
and  disillusioned  by  Bela  IV.  in  the  expectation  of  the 
reversion  of  the  contested  Austrian  lands)  had  died  before 
him,  and  the  remaining  three — Lev,  Mstislav,  and  Shvarn 
— were  established  at  Peremysl,  Loutzk,  and  Galitz  respec- 
tively, while  their  uncle  Vassilko  reigned  at  Vladimir.  The 
influence  of  the  latter,  who  had  loyally  supported  his  brother 
in  all  his  vicissitudes,  prevented  the  province  from  falling  to 
pieces,  and  an  unlooked-for  event  gave  Galicia  new  impor- 
tance. Voeshelk,  son  of  Mindovg,  who  had  succeeded  to  a 
reduced  share  of  his  father's  dominions  and  authority,  had 
adopted  the  Christian  religion,  and  displayed  from  time  to 
time  the  uncomfortable  zeal  of  a  convert  ;  already  he  had 
tasted  the  sweets  of  monastic  retirement,  and  after  the  short 
interval  of  a  rule  which  was  not  remarkable  for  over  much 
mercy  towards  his  subjects,  he  wished  again  for  the  solitude 
of  the  cloister.  It  was  necessary  to  appoint  a  successor, 
and  as  a  Christian  prince  was  preferred  in  that  capacity,  his 
choice  fell  upon  Shvarn  Danielovitch,  who  possessed  the 
further  recommendation  of  having  married  the  Lit'uanian 
chief's  daughter.  Thus  Galitz  and  the  greater  part  of 
Lit'uania  became  united  vmder  one  ruler,  and  it  seemed 
possible  that  in  this  direction  was  to  be  looked  for  the  build- 
ing up  of  a  Russian  monarchy — a  development  from  the 
West  rather  than  from  the  East.  The  union  of  the  States, 
however,  was  followed  by  a  dark  and  ill-omened  deed,  when 
the  Prince  of  Peremysl,  incensed  by  the  preference  shown  to 

1  S.  Solov'ev. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        107 

his  youngest  brother,  murdered  the  monk-prince  Voeshelk 
after  a  banquet  in  the  city  of  Vladimir.  The  sudden  death 
of  Shvarn  (1270)  ended  the  union  so  inauspiciously  in- 
augurated ;  Lev  succeeded  to  the  fief  of  Galitz,  and  Lit'uania 
was  wrested  from  Russia  and  Christianity  by  the  heathen 
Prince  Troiden. 

Two  years  after  this  event  died  Yaroslav-Yaroslavitch,  1272 
Grand  Prince  of  Souzdal-Vladimir  and  Prince  of  Novgorod. 
In  the  former  province  he  was  succeeded  peaceably  by  his 
brother  Vasili  ;  at  Novgorod,  naturally,  affairs  did  not  pass 
off  so  smoothly.  Dimitri  Aleksandrovitch  was  chosen  by 
the  posadnik  and  many  of  the  citizens  in  opposition  to 
Vasili,  and  another  contest  between  Novgorod  and  Souzdal 
seemed  imminent.  The  peace  party  in  the  former  province 
averted  the  threatened  rupture  by  out-voting  the  adherents 
of  Dimitri,  and  Novgorod  was  once  more  united  with  the 
Grand  Principality.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  rulers 
of  the  republic  were  being  chosen  more  and  more  exclusively 
from  the  reigning  family  of  Souzdal-Vladimir,  and  here  may 
be  seen  for  the  first  time  since  the  death  of  Vladimir  the 
Holy  a  reliable  hint  of  the  germ-growth  of  "  all  the  Russias." 
With  Pskov  and  Polotzk  in  Lit'uanian  hands,  Kiev  and  the 
steppes  little  more  than  Mongol  outposts,  and  Tchernigov 
enjoying  but  a  shadow  of  its  former  importance,  Novgorod, 
Souzdal,  and  Galitz  between  them  make  up  very  nearly  the 
total  of  the  Russian-ruled  lands  ;  and  of  these  three  pro- 
vinces the  two  largest  have  settled  down  under  one  family. 
Like  the  acorn-seed,  Russia  had  to  decay  and  shrivel  to 
a  certain  extent  before  she  could  begin  to  grow  ;  but  the 
process  of  decomposition  and  denudation  was  not  yet  arrested. 

Again  did  the  Russian  Princes  of  Galicia,  Volhynia,  and 
Smolensk  call  in  the  aid  of  the  Mongols — this  time  against 
the  Lit'uanians,  who  were  becoming  more  and  more  uncom- 
fortable neighbours.  In  two  campaigns  the  latter  held  their 
own  against  the  combined  Tartar-Russian  attack,  and  the 
idolaters  of  Grodno  and  Novgorodek  successfully  resisted  the 
forces  of  Christianity  and  Islam — to  which  latter  creed  the 
Mongols  had  a  few  years  previously  been  converted. 


io8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 

In  1276  Vasili  Yaroslavitch  was  gathered  to  his  fathers, 
and   Dimitri  came  in,  as  peacefully  as  the  proverbial   lamb, 
to  the  possession  of  the  Grand   Principality  and  of  Velikie 
Novgorod.      Not  long  had  he  been   on  the  throne  ere   the 
wildest  anarchy  broke  out  in   his  dominions  ;  scarcely  had 
the  inevitable  quarrel   with   Novgorod   been   smoothed  over 
than  civil  war  desolated  the  grand  province.      Andrei  Aleks- 
androvitch,  kniaz  of  the  appanage  of  Gorodetz  on  the  Volga, 
was  brother  to  Dimitri — by  the  accident  of  birth  a  younger 
brother  ;  an  accident  which  he  proposed  to  correct  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Horde.      In   league  with  these  formidable 
warriors  and  with  his  uncles  Thedor  and  Mikhail,  Andrei  let 
slip  the  dogs  of  war  on   the  unhappy  province,  and  drove 
Dimitri  from  the  field.      After  the  Mongols  had  worked  their 
will  on  the  wretched  inhabitants,  and  established  Andrei  as 
Grand  Prince  of  a  ravaged   and   depopulated  territory,  they 
retired  with  their  booty  and  captives  and  left  the  two  princes 
to  fight  out  their  own  quarrels.      Andrei  soon   had   to  call 
them  in  again,  and  Dimitri,  not  to  be  outdone,  played  Mongol 
1283  against  Mongol,  and  secured  the  support  of  Nogai,  the  almost 
independent   Khan  of  the  Oukrain  steppes.      The  people,  as 
usual,  suffered  heavily  at  the  hands  of  the  nomad  squadrons  : 
the  "  Scourge  of  God "   has  a  way  of  falling  on   the   most 
innocent  shoulders.      The  condition  of  the  Russian   peasant 
and  tiller  of  the  soil  was  at  this  time  deplorable.      Debarred 
from  exercising  his  labour  on  the  fertile,  but  robber-haunted 
lands  of  the  .south,  he  was  obliged  to  struggle  patiently  with 
the   mighty  forces  of  the  northern   forests,  like  the   Indian 
ryot  fighting  against  the  encroachments  of  the  jungle  ;  only 
in  place  of  elephant,  boar,  and  sambur,  which  ruin  from  time 
to  time  the  fruits  of  the  latter's  toil,  the  former  had  periodi- 
cally to  bewail  the  devastations  of  Kuman,  Mongol,  and,  not 
seldom,  Russian  raiders. 

With  intervals  of  exhaustion,  the  war  of  the  broi-hers 
dragged  on  for  many  years,  kept  alive,  now  by  intrigues  at 
the  Mongol  Courts,  now  by  raid  and  rapine  in  the  lands  of 
Souzdal  and  Pereyaslavl.  Out  of  this  seething  incoherent 
dust-storm  rises  one  tangible  fact,  the  independence  of  the 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        109 

province  of  Tver  ;  born  of  anarchy,  this  little  principality 
shall  contribute  its  quota  to  the  red  page  of  Russian  history 
ere  it  sinks  back  into  obscurity.  Under  its  young  Prince, 
Mikhail  Yaroslavitch,  it  has  taken  advantage  of  the  weakness 
and  embarrassments  of  Dimitri  to  secure  for  itself  a  separate 
existence,  and  to  impair  the  solidity  of  the  grand  province. 
The  Novgorodians,  but  languidly  attached  to  the  interests 
of  the  rival  princes,  started  a  domestic  war  of  their  own, 
one  of  those  vigorous,  exuberant  burgh-strifes  peculiar  to 
the  free  cities  of  Northern  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages — a 
strife  in  which  the  whole  population  took  part,  from  the 
Archbishop,  posadnik,  and  boyarins,  down  to  the  "  youngest 
people  "  ;  a  strife  which  has  been  handed  down  blurred  and 
sketchy,  devoid  of  meaning  and  purpose,  if  it  ever  had  any, 
but  still  instinct  with  life  and  movement.  Wild  crowds 
skirling  through  narrow  streets,  hunting  the  posadnik  into 
the  protection  of  the  Archbishop,  hammering  on  the  closed 
door  of  the  sanctuary,  the  Cathedral  of  S.  Sofia  ;  tumultuous 
gatherings  in  the  great  square,  angry  dooming  of  citizens, 
hurlings  of  struggling  victims  from  the  bridge  into  the 
Volkhov  ;  and  above  all  these  scenes  of  disorder,  the  great 
bell  of  Yaroslav  clanging  and  dinning,  like  some  evil  spirit 
of  unrest  prisoned  in  its  owl-tower.      The  picture  lives. 

Western  Russia  also  had  its  own  troubles,  or  rather  it 
had  become  involved  in  those  of  Poland,  where,  the  scruples 
of  Boleslas  "  the  Chaste "  having  prevented  him  from  re- 
producing his  species,  his  death  in  1279  was  followed  by  a 
scramble  for  his  throne.  Where  there  is  no  heir  there  are 
many,  may  not  be  a  proverb,  but  it  has  all  the  qualifications 
for  one.  The  Dukes  of  Mazovia,  Krakow,  Silesia,  and 
Kujavia  put  forward  their  interests,  and  the  cousins  Lev  of 
Galitz  and  Vladimir  of  Volhynia  entered  into  the  fray 
without  any  more  substantial  claim  than  a  backing  of 
Mongol  horsemen,  borrowed  from  the  Horde.  Even  this 
powerful  argument  broke  down  when  the  supporters  of  the 
new  Duke,  Lesko  the  Black,  defeated  the  Russ-Mongol 
army  near  Sendomir  with  great  slaughter  (1280).  The 
following  year   Galicia  and   Volhynia  received   return   visits 


no  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


from  the  Poles,  but  the  dissensions  which  soon  after  broke 
out  in  the  palatinate  of  Mazovia  again  gave  the  Red  Russian 
princes  the  opportunity  of  interesting  themselves  in  Polish 
affairs. 

In  Eastern  Russia  Andrei  had  practically  established  his 
authority  in  the  Grand  Principality  ;  the  Tartar-hunted,  fate- 
cursed  Dimitri,  driven  even  from  his  beloved  domain  of 
Pereyaslavl,  was  compelled  at  last  to  seek  refuge  with  his 
cousin  and  erstwhile  enemy,  Mikhail  of  Tver,  and  renounce 
his  claim  to  the  grand  province,  stipulating  only  for  the 
possession  of  his  hereditary  fief  This  was  conceded  him, 
and  the  wanderer  turned  his  weary  steps  towards  his  burnt 
and  plundered  Pereyaslavl,  which  he  was  not  to  see. 

The  dead  man  rode  through  the  autumn  day 
To  visit  his  love  again. 

1^94  On  the  road  to  Volok  died  Dimitri  Aleksandrovitch,  and 
Ivan  his  son  reigned  at  Per<Iyaslavl  in  his  stead. 

Andrei's  position  as  Grand  Prince  was  more  than  ever 
assured,  but  the  long  struggle  had  sapped  the  authority 
formerly  attaching  to  that  dignity  in  the  lands  of  Souzdal  ; 
not  only  Tver,  but  Moskva  and  Pereyaslavl  had  taken  unto 
themselves  a  greater  measure  of  independence — apart,  that 
is  to  say,  from  their  subjection  to  the  Horde.  Unable  to 
overawe  this  dangerous  coalition  by  superior  force,  Andrei 
laid  his  griefs  at  the  feet  of  the  Khan,  hoping  to  establish 
his  ascendancy  by  the  same  means  with  which  he  had  over- 
thrown his  brother's.  The  result  of  this  move  was  a  renewal 
of  the  old  "  council  on  the  carpet "  ;  most  of  the  princes 
interested,  with  the  Bishops  of  Vladimir  and  Sarai,  gathered 

1296  at  the  former  city  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  the 
Khan's  deputy,  who  presided  with  Oriental  gravity  over 
their  somewhat  heated  deliberations.  Even  this  significant 
reminder  of  their  servitude  could  not  depress  the  princes 
into  the  decencies  of  debate  ;  angry  words  flashed  out,  and 
swords  leapt  from  their  scabbards,  and  had  not  the  Vladuika  ^ 
Simeon,    Bishop   of  Vladimir,    parted    the    combatants,    the 

1  Vladuika — a  title  of  respect  given  to  the  highest  clergy. 


V     "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN"        in 

blood  of  Rurik  might  have  been  squandered  on  the  carpet. 
In  the  end  Andrei  had  to  accommodate  himself  with  the 
vassal  princes,  who  were  too  strong  for  him  to  subdue,  and 
a  peace  was  effected  in  1304  between  the  two  parties.  Two 
years  previously  Ivan  Dmitrovitch,  dying  without  issue,  had 
bequeathed  his  province  of  Pereyaslavl  to  his  uncle,  Daniel 
of  Moskva — a  circumstance  which  added  considerably  to  the 
importance  of  the  latter  principality. 

Thus  drew  to  a  close  a  century  which  had  witnessed  a 
vital  dislocation  in  the  course  of  Russian  history,  which  had 
been  fraught  with  important  changes  in  Europe  generally. 
The  House  of  Hohenstaufen,  which  had  played  so  bold  a 
part  in  the  affairs  of  Germany,  Italy,  and  Palestine,  had 
gone  down  in  the  death-struggle  with  the  Papacy,  and  out 
of  the  ashes  of  its  ruin  had  risen,  phoenix-like,  the  House  of 
Habsburg,  which  one  day  was  to  prove  the  surest  bulwark 
against  the  enemies  of  the  Holy  See ;  in  Rudolf,  petty 
Count  of  Habsburg  and  Kyburg,  the  Empire  had  found  the 
strongest  master  it  had  known  since  the  death  of  its  founder. 
In  that  other  Empire,  whose  luxurious  capital  seemed  to 
enervate  and  paralyse  the  manhood  of  its  rulers,  the  Catholic 
dynasty  had  drooped  and  shrivelled,  and  when  the  trade 
jealousies  of  Genoa  led  her  to  strike  with  the  Greeks  against 
the  Latin  allies  of  her  hated  rival,  Venice,  the  end  was  at 
hand  ;  the  House  of  Courtenay  gave  way  to  that  of 
Paleologus,  and  the  formula  "  proceeding  from  the  Father 
by  the  Son  "  re-echoed  once  more  in  the  high  places  of  S. 
Sofia.  In  Hungary  died  out  with  the  century  the  male  line 
of  the  princely  House  of  Arpad,  which  had  given  sovereigns 
to  that  country  since  the  first  erection  of  the  Magyar  State  ; 
from  this  point  the  crown  of  S.  Stefan  became  the  ambition 
and  prize  of  the  surrounding  princes,  a  fate  similar  to  that 
which  overtook  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of  Bohemia  a 
year  or  two  later.  The  Livlandish  debatable  lands  still 
seethed  and  bubbled  with  the  wars  of  the  rival  immigrants. 
The  gentlemen  of  God  maintained  a  vigorous  contest  with 
the  See  of  Dorpat,  with  the  city  and  Archbishop  of  Riga, 
and  with  the  Lit'uanians.      In  Riga  the  burghers  burnt  the 


112  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


church  and  chapel  of  the  Order  and  killed  sixty  of  the 
convent  brothers  (1297).  On  the  other  hand  their  Arch- 
bishop, Johann  of  Schvverin,  was  beseiged  in  his  castle  of 
Treiden  and  taken  prisoner  by  the  Order,  to  the  scandal  of 
Pope  Boniface  VIII.  The  heathen  Lit'uanians,  headed  by 
their  Prince,  Viten,  and  allied  with  the  Church  troops  of 
Riga  and  Dorpat,  fought  against  the  knights  "in  eighteen 
months  nine  bloody  battles."  In  1298  they  won  a  decisive 
victory  over  the  Landmaster  Bruno,  in  which  the  latter  and 
many  of  his  knights  lost  their  lives.  The  Komthur  Berthold, 
with  reinforcements  from  Prussia,  wiped  out  this  reverse  by 
a  victory  at  Neuermlihlen,  and  later  the  new  Landmaster 
ravaged  the  archiepiscopal  territory.  Ultimately  the  release 
and  withdrawal  of  the  militant  Archbishop  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  Isarnus  Tacconi,  the  Pope's  chaplain,  to  the  See  of 
Riga,  relieved  the  situation  and  gave  some  measure  of  peace 
to  this  over-apostleised  land.^ 

In  1 300  the  Novgorodians  witnessed  a  descent  of  the 
Swedes  upon  the  banks  of  the  Neva,  where  they  built  the 
fortress  of  Landskron,  which  position  was  promptly  attacked 
and  destroyed  by  the  troops  of  the  republic,  supported  by 
those  of  the  Grand  Prince.  Four  years  later  the  death  of 
1304  Andrei  involved  Northern  Russia  in  a  contest  between 
Mikhail  of  Tver  and  Urii  Danielovitch  of  Moskva  for  the 
vacant  sovereignty.  Novgorod  and  the  greater  number  of 
the  Souzdalskie  boyarins  declared  for  the  former,  but  both 
candidates  hastened  to  put  their  respective  cases  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  Khan,  leaving  their  followers  meanwhile  to 
fight  the  matter  out  between  themselves.  A  march  of  the 
Tverskie  boyarins  against  Pereyaslavl  was  intercepted  by 
Ivan,  brother  of  the  Prince  of  Moskva,  and  their  voevoda 
Akinf  (Hyacinth)  perished  in  the  battle  which  ensued.  The 
decision  of  the  Khan  in  favour  of  Mikhail  did  not  end  the 
contest.  The  town  of  Moskva  twice  repelled  the  attack  of 
the  Prince  of  Tver,  who  was,  however,  successful  in  establish- 
ing his  authority  in  the  remaining  portions  of  the  grand 
province  and  at  Novgorod.      The  accession  of  a  new  Khan, 

1  Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzeu. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        113 

by  name  Usbek,  necessitated  the  departure  of  Mikhail  to 
Sarai,  where  he  remained  long  enough  to  lose  the  affections 
of  the  Novgorodskie,  who  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the 
Prince  of  Moskva,  grandson  of  their  champion  Nevski. 
This  readjustment  of  the  political  balance  enabled  Urii  to 
reopen  the  contest  with  the  Grand  Prince  ;  long  time  the 
struggle  dragged  on,  indefinitely  protracted  by  the  shifting 
policy  of  the  Khan.  For  the  practice  of  appealing  to  Sarai 
to  reverse  the  decisions  of  Souzdal  had  become  with  the 
Russian  princes  a  habit,  confirmed,  like  opium  smoking,  by 
constant  indulgence.  Both  candidates  for  the  Grand  Princi- 
pality were  constantly  to  be  found  at  the  Court  of  the  Khan, 
or  devastating  their  opponent's  provinces  with  Tartar  troops; 
Urii  even  contracted  a  matrimonial  alliance  with  the  sister 
of  Usbek,  Nor  were  the  princes  the  only  competitors  for 
the  Mongol  favour;  the  Metropolitan  Petr,  in  13  13,  sought 
and  obtained  from  the  Khan  an  exemption  from  taxes  for 
the  priests  and  monks,  and  a  confirmation  of  the  clerical 
privileges, — concessions  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  Mongols  united  with  their  Mohametanism  the  toleration 
which  distinguished  their  early  Shamanism — or  did  the  wily 
Khan  gauge  the  measure  of  Holy  Church,  and  conciliate 
her  on  her  most  susceptible  side  ?  Whatever  the  clergy 
might  gain  by  the  Mongol  patronage,  to  the  princes  it 
brought  nothing  but  disaster.  Mikhail  himself  was  destroyed 
by  the  agency  he  had  invoked,  and  Urii  had  the  miserable 
triumph  of  seeing  his  rival  stabbed  to  death  by  the  officers  1319 
of  the  Khan.  Six  years  later  Dimitri  Mikhailovitch  avenged 
his  father's  death  by  spitting  Urii  on  his  sword  in  the  Tartar 
camp,  an  affront  which  was  punished  by  the  strangulation 
of  the  offender.  Aleksandr,  another  son  of  the  ill-fated 
Mikhail,  succeeded  to  the  principality  of  Tver  and  to  the 
dignity  of  Grand  Prince,  but  a  mad  act  of  fear- impelled 
violence  drew  down  on  himself,  his  family,  and  province  the 
consuming  fury  of  the  Khan.  A  harmless,  or  at  any  rate 
customary,  visit  from  a  Mongol  envoy  to  the  city  of  Tver, 
roused  the  apprehensions  of  Prince  and  people,  who  feared 
that  an  attempt  was  to  be  made  to  convert  them  forcibly 

I 


114  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

to  Islam.  Taking  courage  from  the  fact  that  the  stranger 
had  but  a  feeble  escort — a  circumstance  which  should  have 
confuted  his  suspicions — Aleksandr  roused  his  subjects, 
(gathered  in  great  numbers  at  Tver  for  the  Feast  of  the 
Assumption),  to  fall  upon  and  annihilate  the  Mongol  band. 

1327  The  Russians  can  scarcely  be  condemned  for  an  act  of 
treachery  towards  an  enemy  who  had  never  shown  a  scrupu- 
lous regard  for  honour  and  good  faith,  but  the  deed  was 
one  of  criminal  folly,  and  even  its  heroic  aspect  is  blighted 
by  the  fact  that  Aleksandr  had  remained  subservient  to  the 
Khan  despite  the  murder  of  his  father  and  brother,  and  was 
only  roused  to  rebellion  by  an  alarm  of  personal  danger. 
The  vengeance  of  Usbek  took  a  cynical  turn  ;  instead  of 
sending  his  hordes  killing  and  harrying  into  the  devoted 
province,  he  entrusted  the  vindication  of  his  outraged  majesty 
to  a  Russian  prince  and  Russian  troops.  Ivan  Danielovitch 
of  Moskva,  with  his  own  forces  and  those  of  Souzdal,  re- 
inforced by  a  strong  detachment  of  Mongols,  marched, 
nothing  loth,  into  the  domains  of  his  rival,  and  scattered 
desolation  around  him  with  a  thoroughness  which  left  the 
Khan  nothing  to  complain  of  The  Prince  of  Tver  did  not 
wait  to  share  with  his  people  the  chastisement  he  had  drawn 
down  upon  them,  and   Ivan  obtained  permission  to  assume 

1328  the  well-earned  title  of  Grand  Prince. 

So  completely  had  the  centre  of  Russian  interests  shifted 
eastwards  towards  the  valley  of  the  upper  Volga,  that  the 
lands  of  the  Dniepr  basin,  Kiev,  Volhynia,  Galitz,  etc.,  once 
the  heart  of  the  confederation,  were  now  scarcely  to  be 
ranked  as  outlying  members  of  it.  The  influences  which 
were  responsible  for  this  gradual  alienation  from  the  main 
body,  and  for  the  apathy  with  which  the  Grand  Princes 
regarded  this  rounding-off  of  their  dominions,  may  probably 
have  arisen  from  the  same  cause,  namely,  the  Mongol  over- 
mastery.  On  the  one  hand,  so  bound  up  had  the  East 
Russian  princes  become  with  the  neighbouring  khanates, 
that  intercourse  with  Souzdal  meant  intercourse  with  Sarai, 
and  all  its  attendant  humiliations  ;  on  the  other,  the  rivalries 
which  existed  in  the  Grand  Principality  and  the  necessity  its 


"  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN  115 


rulers  found  for  frequent  and  prolonged  visits  to  the  Mongol 
Court,  precluded  them  from  giving  much  attention  to  the 
affairs  of  the  western  provinces.  Thus  it  fell  out  that,  failing 
the  arising  of  an  exceptionally  vigorous  local  prince,  a 
Roman  or  a  Mstislav,  these  fertile  Russian  lands  were  at  the 
mercy  of  the  boldest  bidder.  The  exceptional  personality 
was  at  hand,  but  he  was  not  a  Russian.  Gedimin,  Prince 
of  Lit'uania,  whom  the  early  historians  depicted  as  having 
risen  from  the  position  of  a  court  official  to  that  of  prince 
by  the  murder  of  his  sovereign  and  master,  attained  that 
dignity  by  the  more  prosaic  and  respectable  method  of 
hereditary  succession,  being  son  of  Lutouvier  (1282-93) 
and  brother  of  Viten  (1293-1316).^  Under  the  latter  the 
Lit'uanians  had  been  united  in  large  and  well -disciplined 
armies,  as  the  Poles  and  the  Order  knights  knew  well,  and 
in  the  direction  of  both  these  neighbours  their  frontier  had 
remained  intact.  This  in  itself  was  no  small  achievement, 
considering  how  the  kindred  lands  of  Prussia,  Kourland, 
Livland,  Estland,  etc.,  had  fallen  beneath  the  persistent 
proselytising  and  colonising  attacks  of  the  western  invaders. 
By  Gedimin  was  carried  into  operation  a  policy  of  expansion 
in  the  detached  Russian  lands  to  the  south  and  east, — a 
policy  effected,  like  that  of  the  Angevin  kings  of  England 
in  France,  and  of  the  Habsburgs  in  Austria,  Bohemia, 
Karinthia,  and  the  Tyrol,  by  a  combination  of  conquest  and 
matrimonial  alliances.  But  it  was  not  only  by  the  absorption 
of  neighbouring  territory  that  Gedimin  signalised  his  reign  ; 
he  lifted  the  land  which  he  had  inherited  from  the  position 
of  an  obscure  chieftaincy  to  that  of  a  formidable  State.  At 
war  nearly  the  whole  of  his  reign  with  the  German  knights, 
he  nevertheless  did  not  permit  himself  to  be  influenced  by 
the  cruelty  and  treachery  which  accompanied  their  religious 
zeal,  but  displayed  on  his  part  a  toleration  for  different 
creeds  and  nationalities  which  might  have  been  imitated 
with  advantage  by  other  European  princes.  From  his 
stronghold  at  Vilna,  where  the  ruins  of  his  castle  still  mantle 

^  V.  B.  Antonovitch,    Otcherk  istorie  Velikago  Kniajhestva  Litovskago .     Th. 
Schiemann,  Russland,  Foleit,  u.  Livlajid.     A.  Stokvis,  Manuel  cfhistoire,  etc. 


Il6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  heights  above  the  town,  he  sent  letters  to  Lubeck, 
Stettin,  Rostok,  and  other  cities  of  the  Hansa  league,  offering 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  that  organisation  and  of  the 
town  of  Riga,  to  all  artisans,  mechanics,  and  traders  who 
should  care  to  settle  in  his  principality — an  invitation  which 
was  eagerly  responded  to.  In  the  wars  waged  by  him 
against  the  Order,  both  in  Prussia  and  Livland,  one  figure 
is  very  conspicuous — that  of  David,  starosta  of  Grodno,  who 
appears  in  the  Teutonic  Chronicles  under  the  picturesque 
title  of  Castellan  von  Garthen.  It  was  this  boyarin  who 
held  the  troubled  border  against  the  incessant  attacks  of  the 
Knights  of  Mary,  and  led  many  a  foray  into  their  territory,^ 
One  of  the  most  notable  of  these  was  in  the  winter  of 
1322-23,  when  the  cold  was  so  severe  that  even  the  forest 
trees  were  nearly  killed,  and  men  erected  inns  on  the  ice  of 
the  Baltic  Sea  for  the  travellers  to  and  from  Germany  and 
the  nearest  Skandinavian  lands — this  self-same  winter  came 
the  Lit'uanians  following  hard  on  a  raid-march  of  the  Cross 
Brethren,  burning  and  wasting  from  Dorpat  to  Memel,  and 
returning  through  the  bleak  and  frozen  march -lands  with 
great  spoil  of  cattle  and  5000  prisoners.  Truly  a  winter  to 
be  remembered."  Victory  did  not  blind  Gedimin  to  the 
advantages  of  a  durable  peace  with  the  Order,  to  secure 
which  he  was  even  ready  to  adopt  the  faith  of  the  foes  he 
had  so  often  conquered.  Accordingly,  at  his  initiative,  a 
peace  was  compacted  between  the  various  units  which 
1223  existed  side  by  side  in  the  East  sea  provinces  ;  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Riga,  the  Bishop  of  Oesel,  the  towns  of  Riga, 
Revel,  and  Dorpat,  the  Teutonic  Order,  and  the  principality 
of  Lit'uania,  entered  into  a  religious,  territorial,  and  com- 
mercial treaty  one  with  another,  and  Gedimin  wrote  to  the 
Pope  (John  XXII.),  to  inform  him  that  he  was  ready  to 
become  a  Christian  and  to  recognise  the  supremacy  of  the 
Holy  See.  Gladly  did  the  French  Pontiff  prepare  to  receive 
this  important  lamb  into  the  Catholic  fold,  and  at  the  same 
time  put  a  limit  to  the  Teutonic  conquests  in  the  Baltic 
lands,  and  two  legates  (the  Bishop  of  Alais  and  the    Abbot 

^  V.  K.  Antonovitch.  -  Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN  117 

of   Puy)  were    dispatched   forthwith   to  Vilna.      But  in  the 
meanwhile  Gedimin  had  had  a  lesson   as    to    the  value   of 
"  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian,"  and  informed  the  disconcerted 
churchmen    that   he   intended    to   die  in    the   beliefs    of  his 
fathers,  and  would  have  none  of  their  religion  or  their  Pope. 
"  Where,"   he  demanded,  "  will  you   find    more    crime,   more 
injustice,    violence,    corruption    and    usury,    than    with     the 
Christians,  particularly  with  the  priesthood  and  the  Knights 
of  the  Cross  ? "      Travel  is  said  to  enlarge  and  educate  the 
mind,  but  it  was  scarcely  necessary  to  come   all   the    way 
from  Avignon  to  learn  that.      The  Order  had  not  considered 
itself  bound   by  a  compact  with  a  pagan,  and,   in   alliance 
with  the  unwilling  Bishops  of  Oesel  and  Dorpat,  had  burst 
into  the  Lit'uanian  lands  and  plundered  the  capital,  Vilna  ;  1324 
in     return    for    which     treachery,    or    elasticity    of    honour, 
Gedimin   sacked   the  town  of  Rositter    and    renounced    the 
creed  of  the  Christmen.^      Catholic  Europe  was  angry  at  this 
backsliding,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  epithets  showered  on 
the  half-saved  soul  ;  a  depth  of  sorrowing  wrath  is  revealed 
in    the    expressions    "double-headed    monster,    abominable 
mockery  of   nature,   precursor  of   Antichrist."      Much    mud 
might  they  throw,  bitterly  might  they  anathematise  in  those 
far-off  days,  yet  not  thus  does  history  remember  the  grand 
old  pagan  whose  castle  ruins  crown  the  heights  above  the 
Vilia. 

In  the  year  of  Gedimin's  accession  (13 16)  died  Urii 
Lvovitch,  of  Galitz  and  Volhynia,  who  was  succeeded  in  those 
fiefs  by  his  sons  Andrei  and  Lev  respectively.  Colourless 
princes,  these  latter  representatives  of  the  Roman-Mstislavitch 
family,  known  only  to  history  by  the  alliance  which  the 
instinct  of  preservation  led  them  to  make  with  the  Teutonic 
Order.  That  they  both  died  in  the  year  1324  appears 
from  a  letter  of  the  Polish  King  Ladislas  to  Pope  John, 
in  which  that  fact  is  mentioned  ;  the  two  provinces  devolved 
upon  Urii  Andreievitch,  the  last  Russian  Prince  of  Galicia, 
the  last  for  many  a  hundred  years  who  ruled  Volhynia. 
His  death  (about  1336)  ended  the  male  line  of  his  family, 

^  Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 


ii8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

and  left  as  heiress  of  Galitz  his  sister  Mariya,  who  married 
the  Polish  prince,  Troiden  of  Tchersk.  By  the  marriage 
of  another  heiress,  the  daughter  of  Lev  of  Volhynia,  with 
Loubart,  a  son  of  Gedimin,  that  province  was  brought  into 
the  Lit'uanian  dominion,  which  was  further  extended  by  the 
succession  of  Olgerd  (Gedimin's  eldest  son)  to  the  fief  of 
his  wife's  father — the  Prince  of  Vitebsk.^  The  annexation 
of  Kiev,  attributed  by  many  historians  to  Gedimin,  was 
undoubtably  of  a  later  date,  as  the  Chronicles  make  mention 
of  a  Russian  Prince  Thedor,  ruling  in  that  city  under 
Mongol  supervision,  as  late  as  1361.-  Even  so,  the  Russian 
lands  owning  the  sovereignty  of  Gedimin — Polotzk,  Pinsk, 
Tourov,  Volhynia,  Loutzk,  and  Vitebsk — sufficiently  justify 
his  title,  7-ex  Letwinorinn  et  multornni  Ruthenoruni,  and  the 
Grand-duchy  of  Lit'uania  might  claim  to  be  more  Russian 
than  the  Grand  Principality  of  Souzdal,  with  its  Slav-Finn- 
Turko  population. 

But  here,  under  the  fostering  care  of  Ivan  Danielovitch, 
the  new  Russia,  the  Russia  of  the  East,  was  germinating 
amid  the  decay  of  shedded  provinces  and  lost  liberties. 
Pocketing  his  pride  and  leaving  outlying  lands  to  take  care 
of  themselves,  the  Grand  Prince  sought  to  secure  for  his 
family  and  for  his  capital  a  preponderance  over  the  other 
Souzdalian  fiefs.  His  first  step  was  to  secure  the  Church, 
in  the  person  of  the  Metropolitan,  to  grace  with  its  presence 
the  city  of  Moskva  ;  lured  thither  from  the  now  unfashion- 
able Vladimir  by  the  erection  of  a  magnificent  new  church 
of  the  Assumption  (fit  dedication,  for  had  not  Tver  wrought 
her  ruin  on  the  date  of  that  festival  ?)  the  sainted  Petr  not 
only  lived,  but  died  and  was  buried  in  the  budding  capital  ; 
where  also  the  succeeding  Metropolitan,  Theognost,  took 
up  his  residence.  In  cultivating  the  good  graces  of  the  Khan 
Ivan  was  equally  successful,  but  he  had  to  work  hard  for 
the  attainment  of  his  object.  Konstantin  Mikhailovitch  had 
been  recognised  by  all  parties  as  Prince  of  Tver,  but 
Usbek  was  anxious  to  possess  himself  of  the  person  of 
Andrei,  and  the  Grand  Prince  had  to  go  seek  at  the  Khan's 

1  V.  B.  Antonovitch.     Th.  Schiemann.  -  V.  B.  Antonovitch. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN''        119 

behest,  and    bring   the  wanderer   home.       Andrei  preferred 
to  remain  at   Pskov  rather  than  visit  Sarai,  to  which  place 
the    princes   of  Tver,  Hke   the   animals   who    ventured   into 
the  lion's  den  of  the  fable,  went  oftener  than  they  returned. 
The  burghers  of  Pskov  refused  to  give  up  the  fugitive,  and 
Russia  beheld  the  spectacle  of  the  Grand  Prince,  the  Arch- 
bishop Moses  of  Novgorod,  and  the  Metropolitan  Theognost, 
hurling   threats,    reproaches,   and    excommunication    at    the 
defiant  republic  on  behalf  of  the  Mongol   Khan, — the  latter 
weapon    all    the    more    terrifying   in   that  it  was  here  used 
for  the  first  time.     Yet  the  result  of  all  this  chiding  and 
banning  was  not  commensurate  with  the  energy  expended  ; 
Andrei  sheltered  himself  in   Lit'uania,  and   again  at  Pskov, 
and   not   till   ten   years   later   did   the   homing  instinct   lead 
him  to  submit  to  the  pleasure  of  the   Khan,  and  receive  at 
his  hands  pardon   and   restoration  (i  338).      In  the  absence 
of  his    rival,    Ivan    had    steadily    and    placidly  pursued    his 
fixed    policy  of  Moskovite   aggrandisement,  and    gradually 
established  his  authority  over  the  neighbouring  Princes  of 
Souzdal,  Rostov,  and  Riazan.      With  Novgorod  he  had   the 
usual  differences,   unavoidable   between   a  prince   with   high 
ideas   of  authority   and   a   people  with  wide  views   of  inde- 
pendence, but  the  restless  citizens  grew  tired   of  quarrelling 
with  a  man  who  was  always  dangerous  yet  never  struck  ; 
also  they  had  an  absorbing  feud  on  hand  with  the.Pskovitchi, 
who  presumed    to  have  a  bishop  of  their  own,  instead   of 
depending  for  spiritual  guidance  upon   Novgorod.      On  this 
account    the    Archbishop   of  the    latter   city,  the    strenuous 
Vasili,  was    able    to    effect   a  reconciliation    between   prince 
and    people.       Thus    things    worked    smoothly    with     the 
smoothly-working  kniaz,   Ivan   Kalita,  as  they  called  him, 
from    the    kalita    (bag   or    pouch)  which    he   carried    at    his 
girdle,  and  from  which  he  was  wont  to  distribute  alms  to 
the  needy.      Some  have  unkindly   suggested   that  the   bag 
was    intended    for    receipts    rather    than    disbursements,    in 
which  case,  if  parsimony  is  to  be  added  to  his  piety,  super- 
stition, and  unscrupulous  politics,  he   may  well  pass  for  a 
Russian  edition  of  Louis  XI. 


120  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

The  return  of  the  exile  Andrei,  restored  to  his  princi- 
pality and  to  the  favour  of  the  Khan,  was  a  disagreeable 
interlude  in  the  harmony  of  Kalita's  reign.  Following  an 
instinctive  habit,  he  went  to  Sarai.  Shortly  after  his 
return  to  Moskva,  his  cousin  of  Tver  was  summoned  to 
present  himself  at  the  Horde.  It  did  not  need  the  pale 
faces  of  his  courtiers  and  family,  nor  the  ill-boding  presages 
which  their  fancy  conjured  up,  to  warn  the  doomed  prince 
of  his  impending  fate  ;  down  the  broad  current  of  the 
Volga  he  drifted,  to  "  Sarra,  in  the  Londe  of  Tartarie," 
where  "  dwelt  a  king  that  worried  Russie."  ^      The  judgment 

1339  of  Usbek  removed  the  source  of  disquietude  from  Ivan's 
path,  and  the  headless  corpses  of  Andrei  and  his  son  Thedor, 
arrived  at  Tver  one  winter's  day,  grim  flotsam  of  a  perished 
freedom.  To  complete  the  object-lesson  of  their  subjection, 
the  citizens  beheld  the  great  bell  of  Tver  removed  from 
their  cathedral  and  transferred  to  Moskva.  Not  long, 
however,   did    its    iron -throated    music   soothe   the   pride   of 

1341  Ivan-with-the-money-bag,  whose  death-knell  it  tolled  some 
twelve  months  later.  And  while  they  conduct  the  dead 
prince  to  his  rest,  with  aid  of  chant  and  litany,  wailing 
dirge  and  gleaming  taper,  and  invocations  to  saints,  arch- 
angels, and  all  the  glorious  host  of  Heaven,  in  different  wise 
are  they  helping  that  other  master-builder  of  kingdoms 
into  the  Unknown  ;  with  pagan  rite,  with  blazing  pyre, 
favourite  horse  and  faithful  henchman,  goes  great  Gedimin 
to  his  fathers,  to  his  dreamt  hereafter,  where  "  on  the 
distant  plain  the  warrior  grasps  his  steed  again."  Each 
to  his  own  ;  at  any  rate  both  are  dead,  and  whether  they 
ride  over  a  boundless  plain  or  stand  by  a  tideless  sea,  in 
"  blue  obscurity "  or  in  a  "  great  white  light,"  their  place 
knows  them  not,  and  Lit'uania  and  Moskva  must  have 
new  masters. 

In  both  countries  the  drift  towards  cohesion  and 
centralisation  is  strong,  but  custom  is  stronger  ;  Gedimin's 
realm  is  for  the  present  parcelled  out  among  his  seven 
sons    and    his    brother   Voin  ;    the    lands    of    Moskva    are 

^  Chaucer. 


V  "  THE   YEARS  THAT  THE  LOCUST  HATH  EATEN  121 

divided  between  the  three  surviving  sons  of  Kalita,  Simeon, 
the  eldest,  having  the  capital  city  and  the  title  of  Grand 
Prince — subject,  of  course,  to  the  consent  of  the  Khan.  It 
was  a  critical  moment  in  the  fortunes  of  the  House  of 
Moskva,  when  the  young  prince  presented  himself  for 
approval  at  Sarai,  with  a  respectful  appeal  for  a  renewal 
of  past  favours.  The  news  of  the  death  of  Ivan  had  sent 
more  than  one  kniaz  in  eager  haste  across  Russia  to  the 
picturesque  city  on  the  Volga's  shore  ;  the  two  Konstantins 
(of  Tver  and  Souzdal)  hoped  to  undermine  the  Mongol 
support  which  propped  up  the  ascendancy  of  Simeon,  and 
ruin  their  rival  by  the  same  means  with  which  his  father 
had  kept  them  under.  But  the  Prince  of  Moskva,  with 
the  treasures  of  the  Grand  Principality  and  the  tribute  of 
Velikie  Novgorod  at  his  disposal,  was  able  to  put  his  case 
in  the  most  favourable  light  before  the  Khan  and  his 
officers,  and  the  inherited  instinct  of  almsgiving  helped  him 
no  doubt  to  retain  the  hereditary  dignities. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    GROWING   OF    THE    GERM 

Never  since  the  overthrow  on  the  Sit  had  a  Russian  ruler 
been  as  emphatically  and  unquestionably  Grand  Prince  as 
was  Simeon  Ivanovitch,  yclept  "  the  Proud."  Some  of  the 
most  valuable  provinces  had  indeed  fallen  away  from  the 
realm,  but  if  the  title  Prince  "  of  all  the  Russias,"  which 
Simeon  was  the  first  to  adopt,  was  little  justified  by  the 
facts,  at  least  he  was,  among  his  compeers,  master  of  what 
remained.  The  very  qualification  of  his  powers  which  the 
over-lordship  of  the  Khan  implied,  was  in  fact  an  added 
source  of  authority,  for  the  Russian  mind  had  come  to 
accept  the  Mongol  dominion  with  the  same  submissiveness, 
if  with  less  enthusiasm,  that  it  displayed  towards  the  paternal 
tyranny  of  the  Church.  Supported  by  the  double  certificate 
of  Heaven  and  Sarai,  with  the  iarlikh  ^  of  Usbek  in  his 
hands  and  his  compliant  Metropolitan  at  his  side,  the  Grand 
Prince  stood  head  and  shoulders  above  his  brother  princes 
and  would-be  competitors.  And  here  may  be  noted  an 
advantage  which  the  builders  of  the  Russian  Empire 
possessed  over  the  continuators  of  the  Germanic  one,  and 
indeed  over  most  of  the  princes  of  Catholic  Europe.  The 
Church  "  went  with "  the  secular  authority.  In  western 
Christendom  the  popes,  after  having  entreated  the  services 
of  emperors  and  kings  as  their  surest  agency  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  heathen  religions,  kicked  down  the  ladder 
by  which  they  had  climbed  to  their  high  position,  and  con- 
vulsed Europe  for  many  centuries  by  a  bitter  strife  with  the 

'  The  firman  issued  by  the  Ivhans  to  the  prince  of  their  selection. 


CHAP.  VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  123 


temporal  sovereignties  ;  till  the  up-springing  of  a  new  enemy, 
questioning  the  Divine  authority  of  tiara  and  crown  alike, 
drew  Pontiff,  Kaiser,  and  absolute  monarchs  together,  like 
cattle  herding  in  a  storm.  In  Russia  no  such  schism  en- 
dangered the  sanctity  of  the  ruling  forces,  possibly  because 
no  such  prosperity  had  been  attained  by  either.  "  The 
palace  rubbed  shoulders  with  the  Church  and  the  monastery, 
and  was  scarcely  distinguishable  from  them."  ^  The  Grand 
Prince  was  holy  and  Orthodox,  the  Church  was  national  and 
official.  Ban  and  interdict,  those  bogies  of  mediaeval  west 
Europe,  were  here  familiar  sprites  which  worked  at  the 
bidding  of  the  Grand  Prince  against  his  enemies.  As  the 
worship  of  the  old  Slavonic  gods — Peroun  and  Volos,  Daszh- 
bog,  Stribog,  etc. — gave  way  by  degrees  to  that  of  the  One- 
in-Three  and  the  dependent  galaxy  of  saints,  so  did  the  old 
veneration  for  a  crowd  of  Rurik-descended  princes  merge 
gradually  into  awe  of  one  Heaven-born  sovereign  and  a 
satellite-band  of  his  officials,  amongst  whom  were  the  hier- 
archy of  the  national  Church.  And  in  another  respect  the 
Russian  rulers  had  their  task  simplified  for  them,  namely,  in 
the  long-suffering  docility  of  the  bulk  of  their  subjects. 
Here  were  no  defiant  goat-herds  such  as  chased  the  might 
of  the  Habsburgs  from  the  Graubunden  Alps,  no  Bauer?i- 
kriegern  kindling  the  fires  of  civil  war  throughout  an  empire, 
no  Jaquerie  distracting  an  already  distraught  kingdom.  The 
Slav  peasant  took  all  the  added  ills  of  life,  droughts,  famines, 
Polovtzi,  Mongols,  grasshoppers,  and  pestilences,  tithes  and 
taxes,  with  a  fatalism  he  had  brought  with  him  from  the 
East,  a  stoicism  learnt  possibly  from  the  camel  in  his  nomad 
days.  A  man  who,  in  addition  to  the  privations  incidental 
to  his  poverty,  will  at  the  bidding  of  his  Church  fast  "  during 
the  seven  weeks  of  Lent,  during  two  or  three  weeks  in  June, 
from  the  beginning  of  November  till  Christmas,  and  on  all 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays  during  the  year,"  -  can  have  little 
of  the  bread-rioter  or  throne-shaker  in  his  constitution.  The 
very  placidity,  however,  with  which  he  received  the  dispensa- 

1  K.  Waliszewski  :  Peter  the  Great. 
-  M'Kenzie  Wallace  :  Russia. 


124  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

tions  of  Providence  in  whatever  shape  they  chose  to  assume, 
rendered  his  allegiance  a  matter  of  circumstance  rather  than 
principle.  He  would  accept  the  mastery  of  the  Lit'uanians, 
for  instance,  as  he  had  accepted  the  Mongols,  as  he  had 
accepted  the  Varangians  ;  like  a  dog  of  too  accommodating 
disposition,  he  wagged  his  tail  to  whichever  master  shouted 
loudest,  and  just  now  the  Lit'uanian  princes  were  shouting 
loud  indeed.  Chiefly  as  yet  among  themselves.  The  death 
of  Gedimin  had  left  his  country  in  a  position  which  required 
skilful  handling,  while  at  the  same  time  the  division  of  the 
State  into  eight  portions  precluded  any  one  prince  from 
having  a  controlling  voice  in  the  direction  of  affairs — an 
arrangement  which  could  only  lead  to  disaster.  Fortunately 
for  Lit'uania  the  political  foresight  and  energy  of  her  defunct 
Grand  Duke  had  descended  in  full  measure  upon  one  at 
least  of  his  sons,  Olgerd  of  Vitebsk.  He,  while  engaged  in 
ravaging  the  Order  territories  in  Livland,  watching  for  an 
attack  from  across  the  Polish  border,  or  casting  his  eyes 
over  the  tempting  Russian  provinces  ready  to  fall  into  his 
clutches,  saw  clearly  that  to  live  and  expand,  to  prey  and 
not  be  preyed  upon,  Lit'uania  must  have  a  guiding  hand, 
one  head  instead  of  many.  In  order  to  attain  his  eagle- 
soaring  ambition  he  borrowed  the  habits  of  the  cuckoo,  and 
ousted  his  brothers  unceremoniously  from  the  hereditary 
nest.  An  exception  was  wisely  made  in  favour  of  Kestout, 
who  equalled  him  in  energy  and  military  achievement,  and 
without  whose  help  the  coup  d'etat  could  scarcely  have  been 
effected.  Acting  in  concert,  the  brothers  seized  on  the 
capital,  Vilna,  and  re-established  the  grand-dukedom  ;  by  a 
happy  division  of  labour  Kestout  became  warden  of  the 
Polish  and  Order-land  marches,  leaving  Olgerd  to  pursue 
his  conquests  and  acquisitions  in  the  south-east — an  arrange- 
ment which  enabled  the  Grand  Duke  to  add  Briansk,  Seversk, 
Kiev,  and  the  surrounding  district  to  his  possessions,  and  to 
retain  Volhynia  against  the  King  of  Poland.^  With  the 
Prince  of  Moskva  pursuing  a  policy  of  cautious  inaction,  the 
only  safe  course  open  to  him  under  the  circumstances,  Olgerd 

1  V.  B.  Antonovitch. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  125 


was  able  not  only  to  stretch  his  dominion   from   a  foothold 
on  the  Baltic  coast  to  the  shores  of  the  Black   Sea,  but  to 
obtain  a  solid  influence  over  the  governments  of  Smolensk, 
Pskov,  and  Velikie  Novgorod.      As  early  as  i  346  he  appears 
to  have  had  a  hold  on  the  councils  of  the  latter  city  ;  the 
posadnik    Evstaf  (Eustace)    had    spoken    unwisely    and  not 
well  of  the  great  Lit'uanian, — had  in  fact  called  him  a  dog. 
The  indiscreet  expression   reached  the  ears  of  Olgerd,  who 
demanded  the  death  of  the  offending  dignitary.      The  Vetche 
armed  the  city  in  defence  of  the  posadnik,  reconsidered  the 
matter,  and  ended  by  sacrificing  Evstaf  to  the  resentment  of 
the  Grand  Duke.^      An  action  so  opposed  to  the  traditional 
temper  of  the  proud  republic  that  it  is  only  to  be   explained 
by  a  strong  motive  of  political  expediency.      And  in  fact  an 
alliance  with  Lit'uania  was  valuable  to  Pskov  and  Novgorod, 
both    as    a    bulwark   against    German    aggression   and  as  a 
counterpoise  to  the  encroaching  power  of  Moskva.      In  the 
former   relation,  the  resisting  power  of  the  leagued  princi- 
palities   of    the  North    was    severely  tested    by   the  warrior 
monks  of  the  Order  ;  able  to  draw  unfailing  supplies  of  men 
and  marks  from  the  States  of  the   Empire,  the  knights  had 
bought  Estland  from  the  King  of  Denmark  (1347),  had  in- 
flicted a  severe  defeat  on   the  Lit'uanian   army  (1348),  and 
later  carried  war  and   desolation   into  the  lands  of  Polotzk, 
Pskov,  and   Novgorod   (1367).      With    the   help   of  Olgerd 
the  Russians  were  able  to  make  a  diversion   upon   Dorpat, 
and  peace  was  at  length  effected  with  the  Order  in  1371.^ 
From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Grand  Duke  of  Lit'uania 
was  a  far  more  prominent  figure  in  the  land  than  the  Grand 
Prince  "  of  all  the  Russias."      But  of  the  policy  of  these  two 
contrasted  state-workers  it  may  be  said  that  while   Olgerd 
built,  the  son  of  Kalita  dug.      Intrenching  himself  around 
the  unit  of  Moskva,  the  last-named   silently  and  persistently 
undermined    the    power   of    the    neighbouring   princes,    and 
established  his  own  authority  on  a  sure  foundation.    Novgorod 
might  wait ;   Lit'uania  might  wait  ;  the  Horde   might  wait. 

1  N.  Kostomarov,  Sieverno  Rousskiya  Narodopravstva.      S.  Solov'ev. 
-  Geschichte  der  Ostseeproz'inzen. 


126  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Thus  delving  and  waiting  ruled  Simeon,  so  quaintly  named 
"the  Proud,"  till  death  swept  him  into  his  cherished  cathedral 
— a  victim,  possibly,  to  the  terrible  Black  Pestilence  which 
was  then  desolating  Russia. 
1353-1359  The  succeeding  Grand  Prince,  Ivan  Ivanovitch,  who 
found  favour  in  the  sight  of  the  new  Khan  Tchanibek, 
displayed  all  his  brother's  patience  without  any  of  his 
policy.  His  weakly  pacific  reign  marked  a  partial  thaw 
in  the  iron  frost  of  Moskovite  supremacy,  which  had  bound 
North-east  Russia  in  its  grip  under  the  rule  of  his  three 
immediate  predecessors.  Souzdal,  Riazan,  and  Tver 
blossomed  anew  into  independence,  and  enjoyed  a  S. 
Luke's  summer  of  importance  and  anarchy.  The  Novgo- 
rodians,  who  had  exerted  themselves  to  obtain  the  election 
of  Konstantin  of  Souzdal  to  the  grand  princedom,  only 
recognised  Ivan  on  the  death  of  the  former  (1354),  and 
were  little  troubled  by  the  interference  of  their  sovereign.^ 
Their  own  domestic  affairs  were  sufficiently  exciting  to 
absorb  their  attention  ;  the  election  of  a  posadnik  in 
the  spring  of  1359  gave  rise  to  a  fierce  quarrel  between 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Slavonic  quarter  and  those  of  the 
Sofia  ward,  and  for  three  days  the  hostile  factions  fought 
around  the  famous  bridge,  and  were  only  separated  by 
the  intervention  of  their  Archbishop  and  ex-Archbishop, 
whose  combined  exhortations  at  length  restored  peace  to 
the  agitated  city.- 

If  Novgorod  owed  much  to  the  well-directed  influence 
of  her  prelates,  the  House  of  Moskva  was  even  more 
indebted  to  the  exertions  and  services  of  the  Metropolitan 
Aleksis,  who  loyally  supported  its  interests  under  the  most 
discouraging  circumstances.  When  the  weary  Ivan  had 
closed  his  inglorious  reign,  when  "  having  failed  in  many 
things,"  he  had  "  achieved  to  die,"  the  foundations  painfully 
hewn  out  by  his  forerunners  were  almost  swept  away  ;  a 
new  Khan  had  arisen  who  knew  not  Moskva,  and  Dimitri 
Konstantinovitch  of  Souzdal  entered  Vladimir  in  triumph, 
with  the  iarlikh  in  his  hand.  Souzdal,  Riazan,  Tver,  and 
'  S.  Solov'ev.     N.  Kostomarov.  -  S.  Solov'ev. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  127 


Velikie  Novgorod  exulted  in  the  downfall  of  their  ambitious 
neighbour,    and    the   work    of  generations    seemed    undone. 
Then    was    it    that    Vladuika    Aleksis,    seeing    in    Dimitri 
Ivanovitch    more    promising   material   than    had    existed    in 
his    father,    took    advantage    of  the    chaos    existing   at    the 
Horde — where   Khan   succeeded   Khan    in    a    whirlwind  of 
revolutions — to    obtain     a    counter-iarlikh    for    the    young 
Prince  of  Moskva.     Thus  Dimitri  was  opposed  by  Dimitri, 
each    boasting     the    favour    of     Sarai,    but    the    Moskovite 
enjoying    the    support    of    Holy    Church.       New    intrigues 
gave  the  Souzdal   kniaz  once  more  the  countenance  of  the 
Horde,    but    Dimitri    Ivanovitch    dared     to    disregard     the 
displeasure    of    a    Khan   who   was    here    to-day   and    might 
be    gone    to-morrow  ;     riding     forth    at    the    head    of    his 
boyarins    and     followers,    long    accustomed     to    be    upper- 
most in   the    land,   he    drove    his   rival   from   Vladimir    and 
carried  the  war  into  the  province  of  Souzdal,  besieging  the 
capital.      The    Konstantinovitch   submitted,    and    the    grand 
princely  dignity  returned  to  the  House  of  Moskova.      Well  1362 
had  Aleksis  earned  his  subsequent  canonisation. 

A  few  years  later  the  Black  Death,  brought  into  the 
district  of  Nijhnie-Novgorod  by  travelling  merchants,  re- 
commenced its  ravages  throughout  Central  Russia.  Its 
victims  were  counted  by  thousands,  and  though  the  account 
of  its  sweeping  effect  at  Smolensk,  in  which  city  there 
were  said  to  remain  but  five  survivors,^  is  probably  an 
exaeeeration,  an  idea  can  be  formed  of  its  destructive 
nature  by  the  number  of  princes  who  were  stricken  down 
in  a  single  year.  The  Grand  Prince's  brother  Ivan,  136S 
Konstantin  of  Rostov,  Andrei,  brother  of  the  Prince  of 
Souzdal,  and  four  of  the  Tverskie  family,  were  victims  of 
the  dread  pestilence,  more  wholesale  even  in  its  work  than 
the  ^Mongols  in  the  first  fury  of  their  invasion."  In  its 
wake  sprang  up  a  crop  of  quarrels,  the  result  of  such  a 
legacy  of  vacant  fiefs.  Boris  of  Souzdal  having  seized  on 
his  deceased  brother's  appanage  (Nijhnie-Novgorod},  to  the 
despite  of  his  elder,  Dimitri,  the  latter  was  driven  to  throw 
1  Karamzin.  -  S.  Solov'ev. 


128  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

himself  into  the  hands  of  his  namesake  and  rival,  the 
Grand  Prince  of  Moskva,  who  forced  the  supplanter  to 
disgorge  his  prey.  In  Tver,  likewise,  the  death  of  Simeon 
had  brought  his  brother  leremiya,  his  uncle  Vasili,  and 
his  cousin  Mikhail,  into  competition  for  his  territorial 
possessions.  The  last-named  was  pursuing  in  Tver  the 
same  policy  of  aggrandisement  and  centralisation  that  had 
obtained  such  successful  results  for  Moskva  ;  naturally  his 
proceedings  were  watched  with  jealous  eyes  by  Dimitri, 
the  Metropolitan,  and  the  Moskovite  boyarins,  who  took 
up  the  cause  of  Mikhail's  opponents  and  drove  him  more 
than  once  from  his  province.  Mikhail  invoked  the  aid  of 
his  wife's  father,  Olgerd.  The  great  Lit'uanian,  whose  arms 
had  checked  the  tide  of  Teutonic  conquest  and  driven  the 
Tartars  from  the  Western  steppes,  who  had  wasted  the 
outskirts    of    Revel    and    laid    classic     Kherson    in     ashes, 

1369  marched  now  against  the  might  of  Moskva,  his  rival  in  the 
Russian  lands.  With  him  came  his  loyal  brother  Kestout, 
and,  because  he  must,  the  Kniaz  of  Smolensk.  The  might 
of  Moskva  contracted  within  the  high  stone  battlements  of 
its  Kreml,  which,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  was  too  strong  a 
hold  for  the  Lit'uanians  to  attack.  Olgerd  contented 
himself  with  sacking  the  surrounding  country,  and  carried 
back  a  spoil  of  cattle  and  church  furniture  as  witness  of 
his  triumph.  The  following  year,  however,  Mikhail,  again 
driven  from  his  hereditary  dominions,  again  appealed  to 
Olgerd  for  assistance,  and  with  the  first  November  snows 

1370  came  the  Lit'uanian -Smolenskie  host  against  Moskva. 
History  repeated  itself;  a  second  time  the  Kreml,  rising 
fair  and  glittering  in  its  sheen  of  white  stone  and  silvery 
frost,  above  the  blackened  ruins  that  lay  around  it,  defied 
the  force  that  gathered  against  its  walls.  Olgerd  hovered 
in  vain  around  the  impregnable  obstacle  to  his  crowning 
triumph.  Russian  troops,  under  Vladimir  Andrevitch,  the 
Grand  Prince's  cousin,  were  gathering  on  his  flank,  those 
pied  crows,  the  Knights  of  Mary,  were  croaking  ominously 
on  his  northern  frontier,  while  an  early  thaw  threatened  to 
impede  his  line  of  retreat  through  the  snow-banked  forests. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  129 


Under    these    circumstances    the    old    warrior    slacked    the 
rigour    of    his    onslaught   and    made    an    honourable    peace 
with  the  enemy  whom  he  could  not  crush.      The  indomit-  1371 
able    Mikhail  continued,  nevertheless,  to  wage  a  fitful  war 
with     his    hereditary    foe,    now    invoking     the    support     of 
Mamai   Khan,  the  new  master  of  the  Golden   Horde,  now 
calling  in  the  Lit'uanians,  till"  at  length,  hotly  besieged   in 
his  city  of  Tver,  he  was  obliged  to  submit  to  the  victorious 
Dimitri    and    recognise    the    supremacy    of   the    House   of  1375 
Moskva.      Secure  in  his  own  dominions,  the  Grand   Prince 
was  able  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  hostile  forces  which 
weighed  on  him  on   either  side.      In  the  West  the  crushing 
pressure    of   the    Lettish    power    was    for   a    time    relaxed. 
The  Grand  Duke  Olgerd,  "  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  of 
the    Middle    Ages,"  ^    the    clangour    of    whose     arms    had 
vibrated   round    Polish  castle  and   Order  keep,  had    roused 
the  echoes  of  the  Moskva  Kreml,  and  startled  the  pirates  of 
the  Black  Sea  coast,  was  now  among  "  the  quiet  people  "  ; '"  1377 
of  his    many  sons,  Yagiello   succeeded    him    in    the  Grand 
Ducal    dignity.      Hampered    by   a   large  circle    of  brothers, 
half-brothers,  cousins,  and    other   inconvenient   relatives,  he 
set  to  work   vigorously  to  weed    out    his  superfluous   kins- 
folk ;  the  aged  Kestout,  the  companion-in-arms  and  faithful 
supporter   of  Olgerd,    was   one  of   the  first  victims  of  the 
son's    purging  operations.      Lured    into   his   power,    he   was 
immured  within  the  castle  of  Kreva,  where  he  was  found 
one  day  strangled  ;  his    son  Vitovt  escaped  the  same  fate 
by  a   flight  into   the  Order  territory,  while  Andrei  Olgerdo- 
vitch.    Prince    of    Polotzk,   sought    at   Moskva  shelter  from 
his  half-brother's  hostility.      Dimitri  had  the  satisfaction  of 
lending  his  support  to  this  malcontent,  as  Olgerd  had  aided 
the  Prince  of  Tver.      But  while  Moskovite  troops  ravaged 
the  Russian   territories  of  Yagiello,  Dimitri   from  his  capital 
was  watching  the  storm-clouds  that  had  been  slowly  piling 
in  the  East.      Nursed  into  their  position  of  authority  by  the 
favour  and   support  of  the   Horde,  the   Princes  of   Moskva 
had    become    too    important    and    too    exalted    to   continue 

1  Th.  Schiemann.  ^  A  Russian  expression  for  the  dead. 

K 


130  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


their  former  humble  attitude  towards  the  Khans  ;  like  a 
wasp  entangled  in  a  spider-web,  the  Velikie  Kniaz  was 
over-big  a  captive  to  be  held  comfortably  in  the  meshes 
of  a  degrading  thraldom.  Hence  the  altered  relations 
between  Moskva  and  Sarai,  which  had  resulted  in  a  series 
of  desultory  engagements,  not  openly  avowed  at  the  head- 
quarters of  either  side,  but  tending  steadily  towards  a  more 
pronounced  rupture.  Nijhnie-Novgorod  had  twice  suffered 
the  fate  of  a  border  town  in  troublous  times,  and  been  laid 
in  ashes  by  the  Mongols  ;  Riazan  had  experienced  the  like 
misfortune.  On  the  other  hand  a  more  important  collision 
had  taken  place  on  the  banks  of  the  Vodjha,  where  Dimitri 
had  repulsed  an  army  of  raiders  sent  against  Riazan  by 
the  Khan  himself  (1377).  For  three  years  the  vengeance 
of  Mamai  had  loomed,  black  and  menacing,  on  the  eastern 
horizon,  like  a  slowly  gathering  storm  that  gains  added 
horror  from  the  unmeasurable  approach  of  its  outburst  ; 
at  Moskva  men  watched  for  the  horsemen  who  should 
one  day  ride  out  from  the  forest  and  clatter  into  the  city 
with  the  news  that  the  Hordes  were  coming.  In  the 
summer  of  1380  the  storm  burst;  Dimitri  learned  that  the 
Khan  was  moving  against  them  with  a  large  army,  that 
Yagiello,  "  who  had  small  cause  to  love  the  Moskva  Prince," 
was  in  league  with  the  Mongol,  and  that  Oleg  of  Riazan 
was  secretly  preparing  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  the  invaders.^ 
Was  this  to  be  the  end  of  all  the  delving  and  striving  ? 
Was  Moskva  to  lie  in  ruins,  like  another  Kiev,  a  victim  to 
her  own  renown  ?  At  least  she  should  fall  fighting.  The 
Velikie  Kniaz  gathered  under  his  standard  the  princes  and 
soldiery  of  such  Russian  lands  as  he  could  command. 
From  Bielozero,  Rostov,  Mourom,  Souzdal,  Vladimir,  and 
other  quarters,  came  pouring  in  the  fractions  of  the  first 
national  army  that  had  assembled  in  Russia  since  the  old 
wars  with  the  Polovtzi.  Beneath  the  towers  of  the  stately 
Kreml  they  mustered,  150,000  strong,  to  hail  the  birth  of 
the  new  Empire,  or,  who  knew,  to  share  its  ruin.  Deep- 
mouthed  clanged  the  bells  of  Moskva  over  the  humming  city, 

1  S.  Solov'ev. 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  131 

palely  burned  a  thousand  tapers  before  the  shrines  of  good 
S.  George  and  Mikhail  the  archangel  ;  even  the  holy  Sergie, 
founder  of  the  famed  Troitza  lavra/  left  his  beaver-haunted 
solitudes  to  give  his  blessing  on  the  high  enterprise.  Forth 
to  the  banks  of  the  Don  rode  Dimitri  Ivanovitch  with  his 
mighty  army  ;  before  him  went  a  sable  banner,  from  whose 
folds  gleamed  the  wan  white  Christ  of  Calvary  ;  behind  him 
came  serried  ranks  of  princes,  the  descendants  of  Rurik, 
save  two  who  were  the  sons  of  dead  Olgerd.  On  the 
wide  plain  of  Koulikovo,  the  field  "  of  the  woodcocks,"  by 
the  blue  waters  of  the  Don,  the  might  of  Moskovite  Russia 
crashed  headlong  against  the  strength  of  the  Golden  Horde, 
and  fought  through  the  red  September  day  till  wounds  and 
weariness  numbed  their  failing  arms.  Then  through  their 
ranks  flashed  the  unpent  reserves,  led  by  young  Vladimir 
Andreievitch,  whirled  the  wild  charge  into  the  Mongol 
hosts,  swept  into  rout  the  swarthy  horsemen  of  Asia,  swelled 
the  hoarse  shouts  for  S.  George,  for  S.  Glieb,  and  S.  Boris, 
drowning  the  pealing  war-yells  for  Allah  ;  they  break,  they 
are  killed,  they  are  conquered,  the  God  of  the  Christians  has 
wakened,  the  Prince  of  the  Russias  has  won  a  new  title  for 
ever,  Dimitri  Ivanovitch  Donskoi  !      Dimitri  of  the  Don. 

Possibly  the  result  of  the  battle  was  not  so  one-sided  as 
the  glowing  accounts  of  the  Russian  historians  painted  it, 
but  the  immediate  effect  gave  fair  hope  for  the  future. 
Yagiello  withdrew  his  forces  into  Lit'uania,  and  thither  fled 
the  traitorous  Oleg  of  Riazan  ;  the  Mongols  vanished  across 
the  Oka,  and  the  enemies  of  Dimitri  seemed  melted  like 
snow  before  the  summer  of  his  victory.  The  Russians 
dreamed  that  they  were  free.  Not  so  lightly  were  they  to 
be  rid  of  these  dusky  wolf-eyed  warriors,  who  teemed  in  the 
wide,  arid  plain-land  of  Asia  like  rats  on  an  old  threshing- 
floor.  In  the  East  had  arisen  a  new  star  of  battle  to  lead 
them  in  the  footsteps  of  the  mighty  Jingis,  Timur  the  Lame, 
"  conqueror  of  the  two  Bokharas,  of  Hindostan,  of  Iran,  and 
of  Asia   Minor."  -      At  the  Golden    Horde  appeared   one  of 

^  Monastery  of  the  Trinity  near  Moskva. 
'  A.  Rambaud,  History  of  Russia. 


132  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

his  captains,  Tokhtamitch,  who  routed  and  hunted  to  death 
the  ill-starred  Mamai,  and  seized  upon  his  khanate.  Follow- 
ing on  this  revolution  came  a  message  from  the  new  Khan  to 
the  Russian  princes,  couched  in  friendly  terms,  but  requiring 
their  presence  at  his  Court.  This  was  too  much  for  the 
Grand  Prince  and  his  proud  Moskovites  to  stomach,  and 
Dimitri  returned  an  answer  befitting  the  victor  of  Koulikovo. 
But  the  defiance  of  the  capital  found  no  echo  in  the  other 
Russian  lands  ;  not  a  second  time  did  they  care  to  face  in 
doubtful  conflict  foes  who  were  so  terrible  in  victory,  so 
easily  recruited  after  defeat.  Too  many  brave  boyarins  and 
bold  spearmen  had  perished  on  the  field  of  the  woodcocks, 
too  many  gaps  had  been  made  in  their  ranks  which  could 
not  be  filled  at  such  scant  notice.  Dimitri  of  Souzdal  sent 
his  two  sons  to  the  Horde  ;  Oleg,  pardoned  and  restored  to 
his  province,  intrigued  once  more  with  the  enemies  of 
1382  Moskva.  Against  that  city  marched  the  Khan  with  his 
Tartar  army,  guided  thither  by  the  traitorous  Kniaz  of  Riazan, 
and  bearing  in  his  train  the  }-oung  princes  of  Souzdal. 
Dimitri  took  the  prudent,  if  unhcroic  part  of  leaving  his 
capital  to  defend  itself,  and  seeking  meanwhile  to  gather  an 
army  capable  of  threatening  the  Mongol  flank.  The  flight 
of  the  Metropolitan,  Syprien  (successor  of  S.  Aleksis), 
was  not  open  to  so  favourable  an  interpretation.  The 
Kreml,  ably  defended  by  its  garrison,  under  the  command 
of  Ostey,  called  in  the  Chronicles  a  grandson  of  Olgerd,  held 
the  enemy  at  bay  for  three  days  ;  on  the  fourth  the 
defenders  weakly  opened  the  gates  to  a  ruse  of  the  wily 
Khan,  and  the  capital  of  the  new  Russia  received  a  baptism 
of  blood.  When  the  invaders  withdrew,  bearing  with  them 
all  that  was  worth  removing,  it  was  a  silent  city  that  they 
left  behind  them — a  city  peopled  by  24,000  corpses,  meet 
gathering  ground  for  wehr-wolf,  ghoul,  and  vampire,  a  wild 
Walpurgis  Nacht  for  the  Yaga-Babas  of  Slavonic  lore. 
Nor  was  Moskva  alone  in  her  desolation ;  Vladimir, 
Zvenigorod,  and  other  towns  were  sacked  and  burnt  by 
detachments  of  the  Mongol  army.  The  defeat  of  one  of 
these  bands   by  a  Russian   force  under  Vladimir  of  Moskva 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  133 

checked  the  ravages  of  the  invaders,  and  Tokhtamitch  led 
his  hordes  back  across  the  Oka,  leaving  Dimitri  to  repair  as 
best  he  might  the  woes  of  his  province,  and  to  revenge  him- 
self on  those  who  had  betrayed  or  deserted  him  in  the  hour 
of  his  need.  If  his  kingdom  was  in  ruins,  at  least  he  was 
master  of  what  remained  ;  the  Metropolitan  was  deposed, 
Oleg  was  forced  to  fly,  and  his  fief,  already  ravaged  by  the 
Mongols,  was  harried  anew  by  the  Grand  Prince's  followers. 
Burning  with  indignation  against  the  enemy  whom  he  had 
thought  crushed  for  ever  on  the  banks  of  the  Don,  Dimitri 
had  yet  to  realise  that  he  must  return  to  the  policy  of  his 
fathers,  and  wear  again  the  yoke  he  had  thrown  so  proudly 
off.  Mikhail  of  Tver,  who  bore  him  an  undying  hatred,  had 
shared  neither  in  Moskva's  triumph  nor  in  her  distress,  and 
now  was  plotting  openly  to  obtain  for  himself  the  Grand 
Principality.  With  all  his  losses  Dimitri  was  still  the 
wealthiest  of  the  Russian  princes,  and  a  timely  submission 
enabled  him  to  find  grace  in  the  eyes  of  the  Khan.  A  new  1384 
impost  was  exacted  throughout  the  land,  and  the  young 
princes — Vasili  of  Moskva,  Aleksandr  of  Tver,  Vasili  and 
Simeon  of  Souzdal — were  held  as  hostages  at  Sarai. 
Russia  awoke  from  her  dream  of  liberty  to  find  that  her 
God  still  slept. 

While  mourning  their  relapse  into  a  state  of  dependence, 
and  involved  in  a  quarrel  with  the  troublesome  republic  of 
the  north,  the  Moskovites  learned  a  disquieting  piece  of 
intelligence  ;  Yagiello,  their  formidable  neighbour  on  the 
west,  who  held  more  Russian  lands  almost  than  did  Dimitri, 
had  added  the  kingdom  of  Poland  to  his  possessions.  The  1386 
long  succession  of  princes  of  the  House  of  Piast  had  come 
to  an  end,  in  its  direct  line,  with  Kazimir  the  Great,  who 
since  1370  had  lain  in  a  side  chapel  of  the  Cathedral  at 
Krakow,  where  his  effigy  in  red  brown  marble  yet  reclines 
under  its  fretted  canopy.  Louis,  the  Angevin  King  of 
Hungary,  who  succeeded  him  on  the  Polish  throne,  had  died 
in  the  year  1382,  leaving  a  daughter,  Yadviga,  to  uphold 
her  right  as  best  she  could  in  a  country  already  marked 
by  the  intractability  of  the  crown  vassals.       Yadviga  only 


134  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

obtained  the  support  of  the  Diet  (composed  of  the  nobles 
and  higher  clergy  of  the  realm)  by  leaving  in  its  hands  the 
selection  of  her  husband  and  consort.  The  choice  of  the 
assembly  fell  upon  the  Grand  Duke  of  Lit'uania,  whose 
election  would  at  the  same  time  remove  a  possible  enemy 
from  their  eastern  border,  and  furnish  them  with  a  protector 
against  the  hated  Teutonic  Order  on  their  north.  For 
this  monster  of  their  own  creation  (a  Polish  duke  had  been 
the  first  to  give  the  knights  a  foothold  in  Prussia)  was 
gradually  squeezing  them  out  from  touch  with  the  Baltic 
and  displacing  their  authority  in  Eastern  Pomerania.  One 
of  the  indispensable  conditions  attached  to  the  betrothal 
and  election  of  Yagiello  was  that  he  should  adopt 
Christianity  of  the  Roman  Catholic  pattern  ;  "  no  cross,  no 
crown."  The  prospect  of  a  peaceable  accession  to  the 
Polish  throne  effected  what  all  the  endeavours,  spiritual, 
diplomatic,  and  militant,  of  priests,  popes,  and  grand 
masters  had  been  unable  to  accomplish  ;  Yagiello  became 
the  apostle  prince  of  Lit'uania,  and  Catholic  sovereign  of 
Poland.^  In  his  new  character  of  a  zealous  son  of  the 
Church,  the  Grand  Duke  set  to  work  to  bring  Lit'uania 
within  the  pale  of  the  official  religion  ;  the  pagan  groves 
were  cut  down,  the  sacred  fires  that  burned  in  the  castle  of 
Vilna  extinguished,  the  mystic  serpents  killed,  and  the 
people  baptized  by  battalions.  According  to  a  Russian 
historian,  those  who  already  professed  the  Greek  faith  were 
forcibly  converted,  and  two  boyarins  who  clung  obstinately 
to  Orthodoxy  were  put  to  death  by  tortures." 

If  Rome  swept  this  valuable  State  into  her  fold,  the 
Russian  Church,  despite  the  rather  depressing  circumstance 
of  a  confused  succession  to  the  Metropolitan  office,  was  not 
without  the  triumph  of  extending  her  rites  over  heathen 
lands.  A  monk  of  Moskva  carried  the  light  of  the  Gospel 
into  the  lorn  and  benighted  lands  of  the  Permians,  a  Finn 
tribe  which  dwelt  in  the  northern  valley  of  the  Kama, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  Ourals.  Supported  by  the 
authority  of  the  Grand  Prince,  he  overthrew  the  worship  of 
1  Schiemann.  -  Karamzin. 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  13S 


the  Old  Golden  Woman,  a  stone  figure  with  two  infants  in 
her  arms,  before  whose  shrine  reindeer  were  annually 
sacrificed  ;  had  she  been  more  restricted  in  her  family 
arrangements  she  might  have  been  quietly  incorporated  in 
the  new  religion.  - 

In  1389  Moskva  mourned  her  prince,  Dimitri  Donskoi, 
who  died  while  yet  in  his  prime.  A  variant  from  the  type 
of  cold,  stern  princes  who  had  built  up  the  power  of  his 
house,  Dimitri  was  a  throw-back  to  the  old  light-hearted 
Slavonic  kniaz,  before  the  Norse  blood  had  died  out  of  his 
veins,  or  ever  that  of  Turko  or  Mongol  had  crept  in.  And 
if  he  gained  no  fresh  ground  for  Moskva,  and  left  Tver  and 
Souzdal  and  Riazan  still  under  independent  masters,  at 
least  he  gave  Russia  a  spasm  of  liberty  and  renown  in  an 
age  of  gloom  and  bondage,  and  obtained  for  his  eldest  son 
the  undisputed  succession  to  the  Grand  Principality. 

Vasili  Dmitrievitch  Moskovskie,  to  give  him  his  distin- 
guishing title  (since  1383  there  had  reigned  a  Vasili 
Dmitrievitch  at  Souzdal),  ascended  the  throne  under  more 
favourable  circumstances  than  had  a  few  years  earlier  seemed 
probable.  On  the  west,  Vitovt,  son  of  the  murdered 
Kestout,  had  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Lit'uanian 
malcontents  in  opposition  to  the  King  of  Poland,  who  in 
cultivating  the  goodwill  of  his  new  subjects  had  lost  that  of 
his  old  ones.  Thus  in  that  direction  the  threateners  of 
Moskva's  existence  were  at  strife  among  themselves.  In 
the  east  Tokhtamitch  was  contemplating  a  rebellion  against 
the  authority  of  his  lord  and  protector,  Timur,  a  circumstance 
which  lifted  the  position  of  the  young  Prince  of  Moskva  at 
the  Horde  from  that  of  a  humble  vassal  to  that  of  a  desired 
ally.  His  father  would  probably  have  taken  advantage  of 
this  fact  to  sever  once  more  his  dependence  on  the  Khan  ; 
Vasili  turned  it  to  a  more  practical  use.  With  costly  pre- 
sents, and  probably  promises  of  future  support,  the  Grand 
Prince  bought  an  iarlikh  which  gave  him  possession  of 
Nijhnie-Novgorod,  a  fief  long  since  granted  to  Boris  of  the  1391 
House  of   Souzdal.^      Vasili  was    received   with   acclaim   by 

1  S.  Solov'ev. 


136  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  inhabitants,  and  Boris,  deserted  on  all  sides,  had  to  bow 
to  the  decree  of  fate,  represented  in  this  instance  by  the 
iarlikh  from  Sarai.  On  the  death  of  the  ousted  prince  his 
nephews,  Vasili  and  Simeon  of  Souzdal,  attempted  to  re- 
1394  unite  Nijhnie-Novgorod  with  their  hereditary  appanage,  with 
the  result  that  Vasili  of  Moskva  seized  on  both  provinces 
and  drove  his  cousins  into  exile.  Many  and  fruitless  were 
the  efforts  made  by  the  brothers  to  recover  their  lost  princi- 
palities ;  Vasili  had  developed  a  Habsburgian  tenacity  in 
holding  to  whatsoever  he  acquired,  and  the  ex-princes  of 
Souzdal  had  in  the  end  to  acquiesce  in  their  spoliation. 
Events  in  the  West  meanwhile  had  taken  an  unforeseen  and 
not  altogether  favourable  turn.  The  Teutonic  Order  had 
been  placed  in  an  awkward  position  by  the  wholesale 
entrance  of  the  Lit'uanians  into  the  bosom  of  the  Church, 
which  event  left  the  crusaders  no  more  heathen  to  convert  ; 
hence  the  joy  which  they  shared  with  the  angels  over  the 
salvation  of  their  long  recalcitrant  brothers  was  tinged  with 
resentment  towards  the  Poles,  and  especially  towards 
Yagiello.  The  Grand  Master  sulkily  refused  to  stand 
sponsor  to  the  latter  at  his  baptism,^  and  the  Order  prepared, 
from  motives  of  self-defence,  to  give  active  support  to  the 
pretender  Vitovt,  who  was  enabled  with  its  assistance  to 
continually  harry  the  domains  of  his  royal  kinsman,  till  at 
length  Yagiello,  set  upon  by  Catholics,  Orthodox,  and 
pagans  alike,  ceded  to  him  the  grand  duchy,  under  the 
direct  suzerainty  of  the  Polish  Crown  (1392),'"  an  arrange- 
ment which  did  not  bring  repose  either  to  the  Order  or  to 
Moskovy.  The  Grand  Duke  Vitovt  was  another  edition  of 
his  uncle  and  grandfather  ;  his  arms  swept  far  beyond  the 
ample  limits  of  his  principality,  and  under  his  vigorous  rule 
Lit'uania  attained  her  greatest  extent,  and  perhaps  her 
greatest  power.  Father-in-law  to  Vasili,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  continue  the  slow  absorption  of  Russian  territory  com- 
menced by  his  predecessors  ;  Smolensk  dropped  from  the 
feeble  hands  of  its  hereditary  princes  into  the  actual  posses- 

'  Histoire  de  POrdre  Teutonique. 
2  S.  Solov'ev  ;  Th.  Schiemann  ;   Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  137 


sion  of  the  Grand  Duke,  who  thus  brought  his  dominions  into 
contact  with  the  principality  of  Tver,  long  the  hatching- 
ground  of  disaffection  to  the  supremacy  of  Moskva.  Vitovt 
would  probably  have  accomplished  even  more  in  the  way 
of  conquest  and  annexation  if  his  ambition  had  not  given 
too  wide  a  scope  to  his  efforts.  While  Vasili  watched 
anxiously  for  the  next  move  of  this  exciting  father-in-law 
new  troubles  sprang  up  in  the  East ;  it  seemed,  indeed,  as  if 
Moskva  was  to  reap  no  advantage  from  the  dissensions  of 
her  neighbours.  The  vengeance  of  Timur  the  Lame  had  at 
length  overtaken  his  o'erweening  vassal,  and  Tokhtamitch 
had  fled  before  the  storm  which  his  imprudence  had  raised. 
The  conqueror  did  not  seem  disposed  to  confine  his  destroy- 
ing wrath  to  the  actual  territories  of  the  Golden  Horde,  but 
crossed  the  Volga  and  commenced  to  devastate  the  eastern- 
most Russian  lands.  Moskovy  quaked  before  the  coming 
of  another  Batu  ;  the  churches  were  filled  with  wailing 
crowds,  and  the  celebrated  Mother-of-God  of  Vladimir  was 
removed  from  thence  to  the  capital.  By  a  train  of  reason- 
ing not  easy  to  follow,  to  this  change  of  quarters  was  attri- 
buted the  sudden  turning  aside  of  Timur  Khan,  who  diverted  1395 
his  destructive  abilities  to  the  razing  of  Sarai,  Astrakhan, 
and  Azov,  and  left  the  Russian  lands  without  further  hurt. 
By  modern  historians  this  retreat  has  been  set  down  to 
other  causes  than  the  translation  of  the  Bogoroditza ; 
"  accustomed  to  the  rich  booty  of  Bokhara  and  Hindostan, 
and  dreaming  of  Constantinople  and  Egypt,  they  found,  no 
doubt,  that  the  desert  steppes  and  deep  forests  only  offered 
a  very  meagre  prey."  ^  However,  the  credit  of  the  affair 
remained  with  the  Bogoroditza,  and  what  was  more  to  the 
point,  this  respectable  and  extremely  valuable  ikon  remained 
at  Moskva — no  mean  asset,  for  that  time  and  place,  in  the 
political  importance  of  a  city. 

The  enfeeblement  of  the  Golden  Horde  seemed  to  the 
Lit'uanian  Grand  Duke  a  favourable  opportunity  to  extend 
his  influence  in  the  Tartar  steppes  and  constitute  himself 
the    heir   of   the    dying    sovereignty.      Concluding    for    the 

1  Rambaud. 


138  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


moment  a  perpetual  peace  with  the  Order,  against  whom  he 
had  scarcely  ceased  to  fight  since  his  accession  to  the  Grand 
Duchy,  he  mustered  a  formidable  army  to  support  him  in 
this  mighty  enterprise.  Poles,  Lit'uanians,  and  Russians 
marched  under  his  banner  against  the  Tartars,  and  Konrad 
von  Jungingen,  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith,  sent  five 
hundred  of  his  knights  to  do  battle  against  the  infidels.  On 
the  banks  of  the  Vorskla  (a  tributary  of  the  Dniepr),  Vitovt 
came  in  contact  with  the  lieutenant  of  Timur  and  suffered  a 

1399  disastrous  overthrow,  losing  two-thirds  of  his  army  and 
seriously  damaging  his  military  reputation.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  victory  the  new  master  of  the  Horde,  Koutluk 
Khan,  had  his  power  disputed  by  more  than  one  competitor, 
and  Vasili  took  advantage  of  this  fact  to  discontinue  payment 
of  the  annual  tribute.  The  temerity  of  his  action,  overlooked 
for  many  years,  brought  on  him  at  last  the  chastisement  of 
the  Mongols,  who,  under  the  leadership  of  Ediger,  the  victor 

1408  of  the  Vorksla,  made  a  sudden  inroad  upon  Russian  terri- 
tory. Vasili  imitated  the  tactics  of  his  father  on  a  similar 
occasion  ;  leaving  Moskva  with  a  strong  garrison  to  defend 
the  Kreml,  he  betook  himself  to  the  northern  districts  of  his 
realm  to  raise  what  forces  he  might  against  the  invaders. 
The  assault  on  Moskva  was  weakened  by  the  want  of  siege 
engines  (cannon  were  just  beginning  to  be  used  by  the 
Russians  and  Lit'uanians),  and  Ivan  Mikhailovitch,  Prince 
of  Tver,  was  summoned  to  support  the  Khan  with  his 
artillery.  For  once  hereditary  hatred  gave  way  to  patriotic 
instincts,  and  Ivan  withheld  the  demanded  assistance.  The 
troops  of  Ediger  ravaged  and  burnt  far  and  wide  over  the 
Russian  plain,  and  sacked  many  a  town  and  village  in  the 
Grand  Principality,  but  they  could  neither  force  Vasili  into  a 
combat  nor  make  an  impression  on  the  walls  and  towers  of 
the  Kreml.  A  threatened  revolution  at  the  Horde  made 
the  Khan  anxious  to  retreat,  and  his  offer  of  withdrawal  on 
receipt  of  a  war  levy  was  gladly  accepted  by  the  Moskovites, 
who  were  dreading  a  famine  ;  3000  roubles  purchased  the 
departure  of  the  Mongol  army,  and  the  Velikie  Kniaz  was 
able  to  return  to  his  rejoicing  capital. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  139 


Hemmed    in    on    east   and    west   by  two  powerful    and 
aggressive  neighbours,  with  the  slumbering  volcanoes  of  Tver 
and  Riazan  ready  to  burst  into  activity  at  any  moment  within 
his  own  dominions,  the  politic  Vasili  could  do  little  more 
than  assert  from  time  to  time  his  authority  over  Novgorod. 
The  republic,  indeed,  was  at  the  height  of  its  independence, 
and  played  its  own  game  in  the  shifting  balance  of  Order  and 
Hansa,  Grand  Duchy,  Grand  Principality,  and  Golden  Horde, 
which  made  up  the  round  of  its  political  compass.      In  1392 
it  had  closed  a  period  of  commercial  strife  by  a  treaty  ^  with 
the  towns  of  Lubeck,  Wisby,  Revel,  Dorpat,  and  Riga,  com- 
pacted in  the  border  burgh  of  Izborsk,  where  "jj  gekomen 
her  Johan   Neibiir  van  Lubeke,  her  Hynrik  van    Vlanderen 
unde  her  Godeke  Cur  von  Godlande,  van  overze^-  van  Rige  her 
Tydenian  van  der  Nienbrugge,  van  Darpte  her  Hervien  Keg- 
heller  unde  her  Wynold  Clychrode,  van  Revale  her  Gerd  Wittel' 
and  "  hebben  gesproken  myt  dem  borchgreven  van  Nougarden^' — 
the  posadnik  of  Novgorod — and  so  on   in  quaint  old  low- 
German  wording  that  brings  to  the  mind   a  glimpse  of  red 
gabled    roofs,    narrow   streets  and   quays,  a  whiff  of  salted 
herrings,  pine  timbers,  and  pungent  stoppered  drams.      This 
treaty,  concluded  without  reference  to  the  Grand  Prince,  had 
been  a  source  of  friction  between  him  and  the  Novgorodskie, 
and  a  further  grievance  was  that  the  Archbishop  and  clergy 
of  the  northern  city  chose  to  be  a  law  unto  themselves  rather 
than   show  a  proper  dependence  upon   the  Metropolitan  of 
Moskva.      Yet  another  matter  for  complaint  was  the  depre- 
dations of  bands  of  free-lances  from  Novgorod  and  her  off- 
shoot settlement  Viatka  (an   independent  territory  lying  to 
the    north    of   Great    Bulgaria),  who,    under    the  name    of 
"  Good   Companions,"  carried  on   a  series  of  freebooting  and 
piratical   campaigns  in   the  Volga  valley.      More  than   once 
these  points  of  dispute   led  to  open   rupture  between  Vasili 
and  his  intractable  subjects,  but  Great  Novgorod  was  able  to 
hold  her  own  against  the  hampered   efforts   of  the   Velikie 
Kniaz. 

^  Reproduced  by  Schiemann  from  copy  in  Rath  archives  of  Revel. 
-  "From  over  the  sea." 


140  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Eighteen  months  after  Ediger's  winter  campaign  against 
Moskva  the  eyes  of  all  Russia  were  turned  towards  the  im- 
pending struggle  between  the  rival  powers  of  the  Baltic  lands, 
the  Order  and  the  dual  Polish-Lit'uanian  State.  Vitovt, 
recovered  from  his  reverse  at  the  hands  of  the  Tartars,  was 
moving  again,  and  had  set  his  lance  against  the  black  cross 
shield  of  the  German  knights.  A  dispute  anent  the  Order 
province  of  Samogitia  furnished  a  pretext  for  a  recourse  to 
arms,  and  both  sides  gathered  their  hosts  to  fight  out  the 
deadly  quarrel.  No  hole  and  corner  combat  was  to  decide 
the  mastery  of  the  Baltic  basin;  163,000  men  marched  in 
the  train  of  Vitovt  and  Yagiello,  83,000  rallied  round  Ulrich 
von  Jungingen.  At  the  famous  battle  of  Tannenberg  (15th 
July  1 4 10)  the  iron-mailed  knights  of  Mary  went  down  in 
splendid  ruin  before  the  unstayable  onset  of  the  Slavic 
warriors  ;  the  White  Eagle  of  Poland  and  the  Charging 
Horseman  of  Lit'uania  gleamed  on  their  blood-red  standards 
over  the  stark  and  gory  corpses  of  the  Grand  Master  and  the 
flower  of  his  chivalry,  600  knights  and  40,000  men-at-arms  ; 
the  sun  went  down  on  the  hard-fought  field,  where  Ulrich 
von  Jungingen  and  his  staunch  comrades  held  their  last  pale 
Chapter,  and  the  might  of  the  Black  Cross  Order  faded  into 
1411  the  shadows  of  the  past.  The  Peace  of  Thorn,  by  yielding 
to  the  conquerors  all  they  demanded,  gave  a  temporary 
respite  to  the  Teutons,  but  their  power  was  broken  for  ever- 
more.^ 

The  latter  years  of  the  reign  of  Vasili  Dmitrievitch  arc 
distinguished  by  a  dexterous  peace  with  the  several  items 
which  threatened  at  every  moment  to  combine  against  and 
crush  his  struggling  principality.  The  ambition  of  his 
father-in-law,  the  frowardness  of  Novgorod,  the  dissatisfaction 
of  Tver,  the  exacting  arrogance  of  the  Horde,  were  success- 
fully ignored  or  adroitly  played  one  against  the  other.  In 
like  manner  the  Grand  Prince's  brothers  were  studiously  kept 
in  the  background,  and  the  boyarins  of  Moskva  and  the 
allied  fiefs  were  taught  to  look  upon  Vasili's  surviving  son, 

^  Schiemann  ;     S.    Solov'ev ;     Geschichte    der    Ostseeprovinzen ;    Histoire  de 
rOrdre  Teut07iique  ;  L.  Ranke,    Preiissiscke  Geschichte. 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  141 

who  bore  his  father's   name,   as    future   head   of  the  State. 
Thus  scheming  and   contriving  went  the  Prince  of  Moskva 
on    his    way,    till    one    winter's    day   the    bells    knelled    for 
his    passing    soul,    and  Vasili    Vasilievitch    reigned    in    his  1425 
stead. 

The  late  prince  had  guided  the  flood  of  monarchical 
principles  and  hereditary  right  in  the  desired  direction  ;  his 
successor  had  to  struggle  for  the  greater  part  of  his  reign 
with  the  back-wash  of  reaction.  Moskva  had  been  placed 
by  persistent  effort  high  above  the  position  of  her  neighbours, 
but  the  elements  of  discord  and  disunion  lay  among  her  own 
princes,  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the  surviving  sons  of 
Dimitri  should  seek  to  annul  an  order  of  succession  which 
passed  them  over  in  favour  of  a  mere  boy.  Nor  had  the 
young  Vasili  the  support  of  a  strong  Metropolitan  to  sustain 
him  in  the  stormy  days  that  were  coming.  The  Greek 
Photius  who  held  that  office  did  not  exercise  in  the  State  the 
same  influence  as  his  forerunners  Theognost  and  Aleksis  had 
done,  and  even  in  his  own  department  his  authority  was  not 
undisputed.  For  Grand  Duke  Vitovt,  an  amateur  dabbler  in 
religions,  had  established  at  Kiev  a  Metropolitan  of  his  own, 
and  the  faithful  in  the  Russ-Lit'uanian  lands  paid  their 
homage,  and  what  was  worse,  their  tithes,  to  this  unauthorised 
rival.  Hence  Vasili  had  to  depend  on  the  protection  of  the 
Horde  and  the  affections  of  his  Moskovite  subjects  to  defend 
him  against  the  ambition  of  his  uncle  Urii.  The  death  of  1430 
his  powerful  relative,  the  Lit'uanian  Grand  Duke,  removed 
another  possible  supporter,  and  two  years  later  the  young 
prince  had  to  appeal  to  the  decision  of  the  Khan  Makhmet 
against  the  pretensions  of  his  rival.  By  a  grovelling  affecta- 
tion of  submissiveness  Vasili  was  able  to  emerge  triumphant 
from  the  contest,  and  on  his  return  was  solemnly  crowned  at 
Moskva — the  first  coronation  of  a  grand  prince  that  had 
taken  place  in  that  city.^ 

The  iarlikh  of  the  Khan  possessed,  however,  none  of  its 
old  finality,  and  Vasili  had  to  sustain  a  civil  war  against  his 
uncle,   and   after  his  death  (1434)  with  his  sons,  Vasili  the 

1  Rambaud,  S.  Solov'ev. 


142  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Squinting,  Dimitri  Shemiaka,  and  Dimitri  the  Red.  Although, 
apparently,  not  wanting  in  courage  or  energy  (both  of  which 
deficiencies  have  been  freely  attributed  to  him),  he  possessed 
little  skill  in  utilising  his  resources,  and  again  and  again 
suffered  defeat,  deposition,  and  imprisonment.  The  loyalty 
of  Moskva  brought  him  through  many  vicissitudes,  and  the 
tables  were  turned  more  than  once  upon  his  hostile  relatives. 
Repulsing  an  attack  made  upon  the  capital  by  Vasili  the 
Squinting,  the  Grand  Prince  secured  the  person  of  that  rebel, 
and  supplemented  the  defect  bestowed  by  nature  by  blinding 

1436  the  eyes  of  his  hapless  prisoner.  The  leadership  of  the  dis- 
affected party  devolved  henceforth  upon  Shemiaka,  who 
became  the  implacable  enemy  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and 
roused  for  many  a  long  year  the  fires  of  discord  in  the  land. 
Meanwhile  the  bosom  of  the  Church  was  heaving  with 
agitation  as  profound  as  that  which  disturbed  the  State. 
The  new  Metropolitan,  Isidor  of  Salonika,  had  scarcely 
entered  into  his  new  duties  when  he  was  obliged  to  set  off, 

1437  by  way  of  Novgorod,  Riga,  Lubeck,  Braunschweig,  Nurn- 
berg,  and  the  Tyrol,  to  attend  the  great  Council  which  was 
to  be  held  at  Ferrara — subsequently  at  Florence — to  unite 
the  two  Christian  Churches  in  one  communion.  The  imme- 
diate cause  of  this  drawing  together  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
rivals  was  the  danger  which  was  threatening  the  headquarters 
of  the  latter  sect  at  the  hands  of  the  Infidel  Turk.  The 
Ottoman  dynasty,  rising  upon  the  ruins  of  the  Seljuk 
Empire,  had  slowly  but  steadily  engorged  the  provinces 
which  made  up  the  dominion  of  the  eastern  Caesars.  Asia 
Minor,  Bulgaria,  Thessaly,  Thrace,  had  been  assimilated  one 
by  one,  and  now  there  remained  but  Constantinople,  "  a  head 
without  a  body,"  to  resist  the  hitherto  irresistible  invader. 
Without  substantial  and  speedy  aid  from  Catholic  Europe 
there  was  little  probability  that  the  city  could  long  maintain 
its  defence  against  the  Ottoman  armies,  and  Catholic  Europe 
could  not  be  expected  to  interest  itself  in  the  fate  of  a  com- 
munity which  differed  from  itself  in  so  many  vital  points  of 
doctrine.  The  sole  hope  for  Constantinople  lay  in  the  possi- 
bility of  a  reunion  with  the  dominant  factor  of  Christendom. 


VI 


THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  143 


This  was  the  motive  power  which  had  drawn  to  the  Italian  1438 
town  men  from  Moskva,  Trebizond,  and  the  isles  of  the 
Adriatic,  to  discuss  the  vexed  question  of  the  genesis  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  exact  degree  of  bliss  and  torment  allotted 
to  the  souls  of  the  departed,  whether  it  was  permissible  to 
use  leavened  bread  in  the  sacrament,  and  whether  Pope  or 
Patriarch  should  occupy  the  chiefest  seat  at  feasts.  These 
were  the  main  points  which  separated  the  Churches,  and  on 
each  of  them  the  Greek  prelates  (Mark  of  Ephesos  excepted) 
gave  way — not  that  the  arguments  of  the  Latins  had  become 
suddenly  convincing,  but  the  looming  vision  of  the  Turk 
inclined  the  minds  of  the  Orthodox  to  surrender.  "  lis  ne 
croyaient  pas,  mais  ils  craignaient." 

Foremost  among  the  complaisant  Greeks  was  the  Metro- 
politan Isidor  ;  already,  before  leaving  Russia,  he  had  shown 
a  "  scandalous  predilection  for  the  Latin  faith  " — had  he  not 
at  Dorpat  kissed  the  Catholic  cross  before  saluting  the  Greek 
ikons  ?  Hence  on  his  return  to  Moskva  prince  and  prelates  1440 
assembled  in  gloomy  suspicion  to  receive  him  in  the  Church 
of  the  Virgin,  and  hear  the  result  of  the  council's  deliberations. 
The  Roman  cross  demurely  preceding  the  Metropolitan,  and 
the  Pope's  name  cropping  up  in  the  prayers,  prepared  them 
for  the  surrender  set  forth  in  the  Act  of  Council.  When 
Isidor  had  finished  reading  the  unpalatable  document  there 
was  an  ominous  silence,  amid  which  Vasili  rose  to  his  feet 
and  commenced  to  hurl  invectives  at  the  disconcerted 
Vladuika.  Heretic,  false  shepherd,  corrupter  of  souls,  the 
mercenary  of  Rome,  were  among  the  epithets  applied  to  the 
would-be  reformer,  who  was  promptly  bundled  off  to  a 
monastery,  from  which  he  was  glad  to  escape  back  to  Rome. 
John  Paleologus  might,  for  pressing  reasons  of  his  own, 
tolerate  this  accursed  change  of  dogmas,  but  the  Velikie 
Kniaz  of  Moskva  would  have  none  of  it,  and  hastened, 
after  the  example  of  Vitovt,  to  consecrate  a  Metropolitan  on 
his  own  responsibility,  without  reference  to  the  tainted  source 
of  Constantinople.  Jonas,  Bishop  of  Riazan,  was  chosen 
for  the  post,  but  was  not  formally  consecrated  till  1448.-^ 

1  Karamzin. 


144  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

The  energy  and  reckless  daring  of  the  Prince's  character 
showed  itself  soon  after  in  a  struggle  with  a  new  enemy. 
On  the  ruins  of  the  Great  Bulgarian  State  had  sprung  up  the 
Tartar  khanate  of  Kazan,  independent  of  the  Golden  Horde, 
and  a  source  of  uneasiness  for  Eastern  Russia.  In  an  attempt 
to  repel  an  invasion  of  the  province  of  Souzdal  by  the  forces 
of  this  upstart  power,  Vasili,  deserted  by  his  cousin  Shemiaka, 
could  only  muster  1500  men,  a  shadow  of  the  mighty  hosts 
that  had  followed  the  banner  of  Moskva  aforetime.  With 
this  handful,  however,  he  joined  battle  with  the  Kazanese,  and 
fell,  covered  with  wounds,  into  their  hands.  At  the  news  of 
this  disaster  the  enemies  of  the  Grand  Prince  raised  their 
heads  throughout  the  land  ;  Boris  of  Tver  raided  the  posses- 
sions of  the  Moskovite  merchants  at  Torjhok,  Shemiaka 
stretched  out  his  hand  for  the  vacant  princedom.  The 
sudden  release  of  Vasili  by  the  Khan  Makhmet  sorely 
embarrassed  the  position  of  the  would-be  supplanter,  and 
Shemiaka  was  driven  to  make  a  bold  bid  for  the  mastery. 
A  sudden  move  put  the  Kreml  in  his  hands,  and  the  hapless 
Grand  Prince,  while  returning  thanks  in  the  Troitza  monastery 
for  his  deliverance  from  the  hands  of  the  Infidels,  experienced 
the  worse   fate   of  falling   into  the  clutches  of  his   Christian 

1446  cousin,  who  put  his  eyes  out.  Thus  after  ten  years  came 
home  to  roost  the  wrong  inflicted  on  Vasili  the  Squinting,  and 
the  Grand  Prince  was  thenceforth  Vasili  the  Blind.  This  bar- 
barous requital  of  an  "  unhappy  far-off"  deed  was  perpetrated 
in  the  names  of  Shemiaka,  Ivan  Aleksandreivitch,  and  Boris 
of  Tver,  and  in  their  hands  remained  the  person  of  Vasili 
and  the  possessions  of  the  Grand  Principality.  The  first- 
named  usurped  the  Moskovite  throne  and  enjoyed  for  a  space 
the  power  of  Grand  Prince  without  being  able  to  gain  the 
affections  of  the  people.  In  the  darkness  which  had  de- 
scended on  Vasili  Vasilievitch  the  loyalty  of  boyarins,  town- 
folk,  and  clergy  still  burned  bravely  for  the  captive  prince  ; 
the  popular  clamour  and  the  representations  of  the  Metro- 
politan forced  Shemiaka  to  restore  him  to  liberty  and 
bestow  on  him  the  town  of  Vologda  as  a  residence,  and  not 

1447  many  months  had  passed  ere  the  exile  came  marching  back 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  145 


in  triumph  to  his  beloved  and  faithful  Moskva  —  whose 
dazzling  walls,  indeed,  he  might  never  again  behold,  but 
whose  pealing  bells  and  hoarse-shouting  populace  spoke  music 
to  his  darkened  soul.  Scarred  and  mutilated  in  the  long 
struggle,  in  which  he  had  tasted  the  bitterness  of  defeats, 
imprisonment,  banishment,  blinding,  the  Grand  Prince  had 
triumphed  over  all  his  misfortunes,  had  wearied  down  all 
opponents,  had  won.  A  final  victory  dispelled  the  power  of 
Shemiaka  (1450),  and  three  years  later  he  died  at  Novgorod, 
not  without  suspicion  of  poisoning.  From  this  turning-point 
Vasili  the  Darkened  reigned  peaceably  and  prosperously  on 
the  throne  he  had  laboured  so  hard  to  retain. 

As  the  Moskovites  settled  down  to  their  long-estranged 
placidity,  rumours  reached  them  of  the  terrible  thing  which 
had  befallen  the  city  of  the  Caesars  ;  rumours  which  soon 
grew  into  creditable  news  and  made  them  doubt  but  that 
the  bottom  of  their  world  had  fallen  out. 

Little  fruit  had  been  born  of  the  vaunted  Council  of 
Florence  ;  the  Churches  were  as  far  apart  as  ever.  In  vain 
might  the  Byzantine  Emperor  and  the  Greek  hierarchy 
conform  with  the  decisions  of  the  act  of  union  ;  the  lower 
clergy  and  the  bulk  of  the  populace  would  have  no  dealings 
with  the  unholy  ordinance.  "  Better  Turkish  than  Papish," 
the  motto  of  the  Water-Beggars  in  a  later  age,  would  fitly 
have  described  the  sentiments  of  the  people  of  Constantinople 
at  this  period.  Thus  they  fought  and  squabbled  over  their 
beloved  dogmas,  while  the  enemy  was  slowly  gathering  his 
toils  around  the  doomed  city.  The  Pope,  mortified  at  the 
miscarriage  of  his  plans,  sent  no  legions  rolling  across  Europe 
to  the  assistance  of  the  last  of  the  Constantines  ;  his  legate, 
indeed,  was  on  the  scene,  arguing  and  expostulating,  with  the 
rhetoric  which  gained  him  applause  in  the  council-chamber 
at  Florence,  but  failed  him  in  the  cold,  grim  Church  of  the 
Virgin  in  the  Kreml — for  this  plausible  Roman  cardinal  is  no 
other  than  Isidor,  sometime  Metropolitan  of  Moskva.  But 
while  the  Pope  hesitates  the  Sultan  acts.  On  every  side  the 
city  is  beset  by  an  army  that  blackens  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Cannon  and   ram  and   scaling-ladder  are  plied   against    the 

L 


146  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

massive  walls  and  heavy  gates.  Day  after  day  the  assault 
is  urged  ;  the  city  is  bravely  defended,  for  the  most  part  by 
foreigners — for  the  greater  proportion  of  the  citizens  are  in 
the  churches  praying  for  deliverance  from  the  unbelievers. 
But  the  wonder-working  Virgin,  weary  of  well-doing,  or 
recognising  the  superior  insistency  of  the  attackers,  makes  no 
move  to  save  the  holy  city  ;  the  faltering  wail  of  "  kyrie 
eleison  "  is  drowned  by  the  fierce  roar  of  "  II  Allah  illah 
Allah,"  the  scarlet  banner  of  the  Yeni-Tscheri  ^  waves  in  the 
1453  breach  at  the  Gate  of  Romanes,  the  young  Sultan  Mahomet 
II.  bursts  in  upon  his  prey,  and  Constantine  Paleologus, 
wounded  and  trampled  on  in  the  rush  of  the  victors,  dies 
amid  the  ruin  of  his  empire.  The  purple  and  gold  of  old 
Byzantium  are  lost  in  the  pall  of  night,  and  the  rising 
moon  salutes  another  crescent  that  gleams  forth  upon  the 
dome  of  S.  Sophia.  The  cry  of  the  muezzins  peals 
through  the  startled  city  ;  the  eternal  speculations  upon 
the  economy  of  self-begetting  Trinities  dies  away  before 
the  new  dogma,  "  There  is  one  God  and  Mahomet  is  His 
prophet."  This  is  the  end  of  the  Crusades  ;  this  is  the  fall  of 
the  Tzargrad.^ 

After  the  first  feeling  of  stupefaction  and  regret  produced 
by  these  doleful  tidings  had  passed  away,  the  Moskovites 
might  gather  some  little  satisfaction  from  the  overthrow  of 
their  spiritual  headquarters,  their  one  link  with  southern 
Europe.  More  than  ever  isolated,  the  Russian  principality 
gained  in  importance  by  becoming  the  sole  resting-place  of 
the  official  Greek  religion  and  of  Greek  ideas.  Not  at  once 
did  Moskva  realise,  or  invent,  the  pleasing  idea  that  she  had 
succeeded  to  the  heritage  of  the  Caesars  ;  yet  to  her,  still 
struggling  with  the  competition  of  other  cities,  with  Tver, 
and  Vladimir,  even  with  faded  Kiev,  it  was  no  small  gain  to 
have  her  churches  and  high  places  adorned  by  the  art  and 
sanctified  by  the  presence  of  the  Greek  monks  and  artists, 

1  New  guard,  corrupted  into  Janissaries.  k 

2  Von  Hammer- Purgstall,  Histoire  de  V Empire  Ottoman.     J.  W.  Zinkeisen,       " 
Gesckicte  des  osmanischen  Reich  in  Eiiropa.      E.  A.  Freeman,    Ottoman  Power  in 
Europe. 


VI  THE  GROWING  OF  THE  GERM  147 


sages   and    artificers,   who  sought    refuge   within   her  gates. 
And  the  last  years  of  her  Prince,  the  evening  of  his  stormy 
day,  were  ones  of  great  progress  for  the  white  city,  and  for 
the   monarchy   which  was    rising  around    this   corner-stone. 
The  forces  of  reaction  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  spent 
their  fury  on  the  person  of  Vasili,  and  his  unbroken  spirit 
might  now  pursue  its  way  unquestioned.      Novgorod,  long 
the  resort  and   refuge  of  his  enemies,  had  at  last  to  reckon 
with  the  armed  expression  of  his  resentment ;   its  messengers 
were  refused  hearing,  its  army  of  5000  mail-clad  knights  was 
routed  near  Rousa,  its  posadnik  was  a  captive  in  the  Grand  1456 
Prince's  hands,  his  forces  occupied  Torjhok.      Peace  had  to 
be  bought  by  the  disbursement  of   8500  roubles,  by  sub- 
mission to  a  princely  levy,  and   by  other  sacrifices  of  pride 
and  pelf.      The  same  year  died  Ivan  Thedorovitch  of  Riazan, 
leaving  his  infant  son  Vasili  to  the  guardianship  of  the  Grand 
Prince,    who    took    good    care   of   the   orphan — and    of   his 
province.      Viatka,  that  turbulent  colony,  which  outdid  its 
parent  Novgorod  in  rebellion  and  disorder,  was  forced  to  pay 
a  tribute  to  the  Prince  of  Moskva  and   to  respect  his  arms.  1459 
Pskov,  long  time  but  a  Lit'uanian  outpost,  received  his  second 
son  Urii  as  governor.      Thus  the  grand  principality,  at  peace 
once  more  within  itself,  was  beginning  to  quicken  its  dormant  1460 
authority  in  the  farthest  limits  of  its   extent.      In   the  year 
1460    Vasili    paid    a    long    and    gracious    visit    to    Velikie 
Novgorod,  to  set  the  seal  of  his  sovereignty  on  his  northern- 
most city  and  dazzle  the  proud  republicans  with  his  imposing 
retinue.      Much    might    they   marvel   at    this  grim    groping 
figure,  who  had  buffeted  his  way  through  so  many  storms, 
who   had    wrested   victory   from    defeat,   had    thwarted    the 
designs  of  Pope  and  Council,  had  taught  the  bells  of  S.  Sofia 
Novgorodskie  to  jangle  in  his  honour,  had    made   Moskva 
mistress  over    long -resisting  provinces.      Scarred   and  worn 
with  the  traces  of  his  life-struggle,  Vasili   the  Darkened  was 
a  meet  type  of  the  Russia  he  ruled  over,  but  just  beginning 
to   grope    its   way   into   the   paths   of  unity   and  dominion. 
When   in    1462   he  went  to  his  well-earned   rest,  he  left  his 
son  Ivan  in  assured  possession  of  the  sovereignty  in  which  he 


,48  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP.  VI 

had  been  already  for  some  time  associated.  The  old  mad 
folly  of  dividing  the  hardly-cemented  territories  between  the 
dead  Prince's  sons  was  still  persisted  m-Vas,hs  eyes  had 
not  been  opened  even  by  being  put  out-but  Ivan  was 
emphatically  Grand  Prince  of  Moskva. 


4 


4 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    LAST    OF    THE    PALEOLOGI    AND    THE    FIRST    OF 

THE   AUTOCRATS 

With  the  accession  of  Ivan  III.  to  the  throne  of  Moskva, 
Russian  history  takes  new  shape  and  direction.  This  dark, 
watchful,  brooding  kniaz  was  but  the  continuator  of  a 
dynasty  of  Hke  princes  "  of  gloomy  and  terrible  mien,  whose 
foreheads  were  marked  by  the  seal  of  destiny."  ^  "  Time 
and  circumstance  and  opportunity  paint  with  heedless  hands 
and  garish  colours  on  the  canvas  of  a  man's  life  ;  so  that 
the  result  is  less  frequently  a  finished  picture  than  a  palette 
of  squeezed  tints."  -  Time  and  circumstance  and  opportunity 
gave  Ivan  the  title  of  Great,  and  his  principality  an  import- 
ance it  had  never  before  enjoyed.  That  he  made  the  most 
of  his  possibilities  will  not  be  denied,  but  in  the  nature  of 
things  this  might  scarcely  have  been  otherwise.  The  whole 
character  of  the  man  dovetailed  into  the  part  he  was  required 
to  play. 

The  growth  of  Moskovy  had  been  marked  by  a  life- 
struggle  with  three  hostile  factors — internal  disruption,  the 
aggression  of  the  Horde,  and  the  aggression  of  the  Lit'uanian 
Princes ;  the  first  had  been  nearly  stamped  down  by  the 
forerunners  of  Ivan,  circumstances  enabled  him  to  deal 
successfully  with  the  two  latter.  The  Golden  Horde  had 
already,  in  the  reign  of  Vasili,  fallen  apart  into  independent 
khanates,  that  of  Astrakhan  representing  the  parent  branch, 
while  those  of  Kazan  and  of  the  Krim  Tartars  bordered  the 
grand  principality  on  the  east  and  south  respectively.  The 
latter  khanate  was  wedged  in  between  the  lands  of  Astrakhan 

1  Rambaud.  -  Rosebery,  Pitt. 


I50  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

and  Lit'uania,  and  Ivan  was  able  to  turn  its  resources  to 
good  account  against  both  these  neighbours,  as  a  counterpoise 
to  the  concerted  action  which  they  were  ever  ready  to  take 
against  him.  With  the  Kazanese  he  carried  on,  in  the  early 
years  of  his  reign  (1467-69),  a  scrambling  war,  in  which,  if 
his  armies  more  than  held  their  own,  he  personally  showed 
little  courage  or  determination.  Possibly,  however,  he  was 
reserving  himself  for  the  inevitable  struggle  with  Novgorod, 
on  the  result  of  which  indirectly  hung  the  question  whether 
Vilna  or  Moskva  should  be  the  centre  of  the  Russian  state. 
"  Under  which  King  ? "  was  undisguisedly  the  issue  which 
was  before  the  Novgorodskie  at  this  juncture,  and  the  answer 
threatened  to  be  unfavourable  to  Moskva.  For  once  the 
faction  motives  that  agitated  the  citizens  of  the  great  re- 
public are  plainly  understandable  :  on  the  one  side  was 
hostility  to  the  growing  and  griping  power  of  the  Grand 
Prince,  and  a  desire  to  seek  the  protection  of  Kazimir  and 
the  spiritual  guidance  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Kiev  ;  on  the 
other,  aversion  to  a  foreign  suzerainty  and  a  heresy-tainted 
Church.  Since  Olga  had  lighted  the  torch  of  Christianity 
in  the  land,  since  Anastasie  of  Galitz  ^  had  furnished  an 
illumination  of  a  different  nature,  women  had  rarely  mingled 
in  the  national  politics,  and  "  cherchez  la  femine "  would 
scarcely  hold  good  with  regard  to  Russian  troubles.  Now, 
however,  at  the  head  of  the  Lit'uanian-leaning  faction  appears 
a  woman,  one  Martha,  widow  of  the  posadnik  Isak  Boretzki, 
and  mother  of  two  of  the  city  notables.  The  encroachments 
of  Vasili  on  the  liberties  and  domains  of  the  republic  had 
thoroughly  alarmed  the  citizens,  and  Martha's  party  had 
little  difficulty  in  rousing  a  spirit  of  defiance  towards  the 
new  Prince,  who  was  held  to  be  of  weaker  fibre  than  his 
father.  An  alliance  with  Kazimir  was  openly  projected,  and 
the  Moskovite  agents  were  treated  with  studied  disrespect. 
Ivan  expostulated,  the  Novgorodskie  persisted.  Still  ex- 
postulating, the  Grand  Prince  set  in  motion  a  formidable 
array  of  troops  ;  Pskovskie,  Moskovite,  Viatkian,  Tv^erskie, 
and  Tartar  contingents  converged  on  the  lands  of  the 
^  Mistress  of  a  Kniaz  of  Galitz,  and  burned  alive  by  his  boyarins. 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  151 

republic,  defeated  and  drove  in  the  forces  sent  against  them, 
and  hemmed   the   city   in    on   every  side.      Ivan,  breathing 
peace  and  goodwill,  wound  his  coils  slowly  round   his  prey, 
and  waited.      Want,  the  old   enemy  of  Novgorod,  began  to 
fight  against  the  Boretzki  faction  ;   "  Ivan   is  at  our  gates, 
and  your  Kazimir,  where  is  he  ? "  demanded  the  "  younger 
folk,"  the  first  to  feel  the  pinch  of  famine.      Couriers  had 
been  sent  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  the   King  of  Poland, 
but  the    Land -Master  of  Livland  had    turned    them    back. 
And  this  mild-mannered  Grand  Prince,  still  breathing  good- 
will, had  taken  to  cutting  off  the  heads  of  the  most  notable 
of  his  prisoners  ;  among  others,  one  of  Martha's  sons  had 
been  so  treated.      Clearly  this  was  not  a  man   to  be  trifled 
with  ;  the  city  capitulated.      Bitter  were  the  terms  to  which  1471 
the  Novgorodskie  had  to  submit:   a  fine  of   15,000  roubles, 
the  surrender  of  several  contested  dependencies,  the  payment 
of  a  tribute  to  Moskva,  an  engagement  to  hold  no  intercourse 
with  the  King  of  Poland  or  the  Metropolitan  of  Kiev  or  any 
of  the  Grand  Prince's  enemies,  the  annulment  of  the  acts  of 
the    Vetche,  and    the  recognition    of  Ivan   as  appeal  judge 
in  their  civic  litigation.      Velikie  Novgorod  had   found  her 
master. 

The  next  and  most  important  event  of  an  important 
reign  was  produced  by  an  outside  circumstance.  The  tidal 
wave  of  Islam  which  had  swept  over  the  cradle  of  the 
Orthodox  faith,  had  also  cut  short  the  sphere  of  Papal 
influence,  and  threatened  to  make  still  further  inroads  on 
the  Catholic  lands  of  South -Eastern  Europe.  As  Venice 
mourned  her  damaged  trade  so  Rome  sighed  over  her 
abbreviated  authority  and  diminished  Peter's  Pence.  Pope 
after  Pope  cast  anxious  eyes  around  the  sovereigns  of 
Christendom  to  discover  a  possible  champion  against  the 
Turk  ;  but  the  days  of  the  Crusades  were  over.  One  card 
there  remained  for  the  Vatican  to  play.  Brought  up  in 
dependence  on  the  Papal  Court,  and  in  conformity  with  the 
Latin  faith,  were  the  heritors  of  the  dead  empire  ;  Sophie 
Paleologus  and  her  two  brothers,  children  of  Thomas,  brother 
of  the  last  Emperor,  were,  body  and  soul,  at  the  disposal  of 


152  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  Pope  (Paul  II.).  Of  the  young  Princes  obviously  nothing 
could  be  made,  but  by  proclaiming  Sophie  as  heiress  of 
Constantinople  a  husband  might  be  found  for  her  who  would 
be  willing  to  break  a  lance  with  Mahomet  for  the  possession 
of  his  wife's  inheritance.  Ivan  of  Moskva,  whose  remote 
ancestors  had  turned  their  eyes  so  persistently  towards  the 
Tzargrad,  seemed  a  likely  candidate  for  the  hand  of  the 
orphan  exile,  and  an  embassy  from  Paul  sounded  the  Grand 
Prince  on  the  subject.  Ivan,  whose  first  wife,  Mariya  of 
Tver,  had  died  in  1467,  lent  favourable  ear  to  the  suggestion, 
and  matters  were  satisfactorily  arranged  between  the  high 
contracting  parties.  The  question  of  religion  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  raised  as  an  obstacle,  either  by  Paul  or 
Sixtus  IV.,  who  succeeded  to  the  Papal  throne  while  the 
negotiations  were  proceeding.  Whether  Ivan's  ambassadors 
threw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  Pontiffs,  whether  the  latter 
hoped  to  win  him,  by  means  of  his  bride,  over  to  the  Latin 
faith,  or  whether  the  driving  out  of  the  Turk  was  for  the 
moment  more  important  than  the  genesis  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
it  is  difficult  to  determine,  but  the  betrothal  was  accomplished 
with  the  full  blessing  of  the  Church.  Of  Sophie  the  in- 
formation available  is  curiously  unequal,  detailed  on  some 
points,  vague  to  blankness  on  others.  That,  according  to 
the  chronicles,  she  charmed  all  beholders  with  her  presence — 
a  habit  common  with  princesses — must  be  dispassionately 
compared  with  a  contemporary  Italian  account,  which  likened 
her  to  a  disgusting  mountain  of  fat.  That  she  left  the 
Eternal  City  under  the  wing  of  the  Pope's  legate  ;  that  she 
passed  through  Viterbo  and  Sienna  ;  that  the  council  of  the 
latter  city  voted,  by  124  voices  to  42,  fifty  florins  to  defray 
the  cost  of  her  reception  ;  that  she  made  her  way  through 
Bologna  and  Niirnberg  to  Lubeck,  and  thence  by  sea  to 
Revel  ;  that  she  was  well  received  at  Pskov,  and  also  at 
Novgorod,  at  which  place  the  old  bell  of  Yaroslav  might  yet 
salute  the  honoured  guest  ;  all  this  may  be  gathered  from 
the  records  of  the  past.^  Reared  amid  the  warm  and  stately 
cities  of  Italy,  with  fond  remembrance  of  the  lost  glories  of 
'  Le  pere  Pierling,  La  Ritssie  et  I  Orient. 


vn 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGl  153 


Constantinople,  there  was  much  that  must  have  seemed 
strange  and  wild,  perhaps  desolate,  in  the  long  sledge  journey 
through  the  unending  snoW-choked  forests  towards  Moskva  ; 
Moskva,  which,  even  in  its  winter  mantle,  would  compare 
but  meagrely  with  most  of  the  cities  the  traveller  had  passed 
through.  For  in  those  days  and  at  that  moment,  with  its 
cathedral  in  ruins,  its  buildings  insignificant,  and  its  limits 
eked  out  with  meadows  and  copses,  the  capital  of  the  grand 
principality  did  not  make  a  very  brave  show/  The  solemnity 
of  her  reception  was  marred  by  an  awkward  incident,  which 
showed  that,  however  the  case  might  be  at  Rome,  inter- 
Christian  bitterness  still  ruled  strong  at  Moskva.  The 
legate,  it  was  understood,  not  content  with  flaunting  his 
scarlet  robes  in  the  face  of  the  Orthodox,  intended  to  have 
the  Latin  Cross  borne  before  him  into  the  city.  Should 
such  things  be  ?  Ivan  held  high  counsel  with  his  clergy  and 
boyarins  on  the  subject  ;  the  majority  were  in  favour  of 
"  shutting  their  eyes  "  when  the  objectionable  emblem  should 
make  its  appearance  on  the  scene,  but  this  ostrich -like 
expedient  did  not  recommend  itself  to  the  Metropolitan 
Filipp,  who  declared  that  if  it  came  in  at  one  gate  he  should 
go  out  at  another.  Happily  the  Cardinal  showed  a  more 
accommodating  spirit,  and,  when  the  situation  had  been 
explained  to  him  by  the  Prince's  messengers,  consented  to 
have  the  Cross  smuggled  through  in  a  sledge.  This  con- 
cession smoothed  over  the  difficulty,  and  the  catastrophe  of 
the  whole  bridal  train  being  kept  waiting  for  days  in  the 
snow  outside  Moskva  till  one  or  other  of  the  churchmen 
gave  way,  was  happily  averted."  From  the  moment  that 
Sophie  Paleologus  became  mated  with  Ivan  comparatively  1472 
little  is  heard  of  her ;  her  personality  is  swallowed  up  in 
that  of  the  Grand  Prince.  But  the  influence  of  the  Greek 
Princess  can  be  traced  in  many  of  the  important  develop- 
ments of  this  reign.  Born  amid  the  extravagant  ceremonial 
of  the  Byzantine  Court,  and  treasuring  the  memory  of  those 
splendid  myths  and  vanities,  the  more  perhaps  because  they 
were  wholly  lost,  the  exile  transplanted  to  the  rugged  soil  of 
1  Iz  Istorie  Moskvui.  ^  5.  Solov'ev.     Karamzin.      Pierling. 


154  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Moskovy  the  ideals  that  had  waxed  to  fantastic  growth  on 
the  humid  shores  of  the  Bosphorus.  The  Velikie-kniaz  of 
yore,  moving  freely  among  his  boyarins  and  subjects, 
develops  gradually  into  the  heaven-born  Sovereign,  a  being 
removed  from  contact  with  the  ordinary  sons  of  earth,  with- 
drawn from  profane  touch  into  a  Holy  of  Holies  of  pomp 
and  ceremony.  Here  again  Ivan  was  manifestly  fitted  to 
assist  in  working  out  this  evolution.  His  cold-blooded, 
calculated  policy,  his  pitiless,  passionless  judgment,  his  baleful 
glance,  which  is  said  to  have  caused  women  to  faint,  were 
meet  attributes  of  a  majesty  that  was  accounted  something 
more  than  human. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  new  Byzantine  and  Italian 
ideas  which  the  Grand  Prince  imbibed  from  the  inspiration 
of  his  consort  and  her  Court  followers,  Moskva  received  new 
buildings  and  adornments,  a  new  Cathedral  of  the  Assump- 
tion (Ouspienskie  Sobor),  a  new  Kreml,  new  ordnance, 
new  coinage.  Received  also  new  laws,  new  punishments  ; 
the  old  repugnance  against  taking  life,  expressed  in  the 
testament  of  Monomachus,  gave  way  to  artistically  conceived 
executions  and  tortures.  Heretics  were  put  to  death  in  a 
manner  that  the  Inquisitors  of  Western  Europe  might  have 
been  proud  to  own — roasted  gently  in  a  cage,  for  example, 
or,  if  allowed  to  live,  deprived  of  their  unruly  tongues.  Knout 
and  axe  made  their  appearance  in  the  penal  code,  flesh  and 
blood  cheapened  in  the  market  of  civil  life.  Such  were  the 
results  of  the  union  of  the  last  of  the  Caesars  with  the  first 
of  the  Tzars.  The  outward  expression  of  this  alliance  was 
the  adoption  on  the  Prince's  seals  of  the  double-headed  eagle, 
the  arms  of  the  defunct  eastern  empire  ;  a  cognisance  which 
had,  since  the  days  of  Karl  the  Great,  been  also  the  distin- 
guishing device  of  the  western  empire.^ 

'  Unlike  their  compeers  in  Western  Europe,  who  attached  high  importance 
to  matters  heraldic,  the  Russian  princes  were  somewhat  "fancy-free"  in  the 
employment  of  armorial  bearings,  and  their  devices  took  more  the  nature  of  bar- 
baric totems  than  of  feudal  blazonry.  Only  in  the  reign  of  Vasili  the  Darkened 
had  the  S.  George-the-Conqueror  and  dragon  become  the  fixed  stamp  on  the 
seals  and  coins  of  Moskva  ;  an  earlier  form  of  this  was  a  simple  mounted  figure, 
similar  to  that  borne  by  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Lit'uania.     The  coins  of  Dimitri 


I 


vii  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGl  155 

In  his  capacity  of  appeal  judge  of  Novgorodian  suits, 
Ivan  found  his  influence  over  the  affairs  of  the  city  daily 
growing  stronger  ;  an  accident  furnished  him  with  the  pre- 
text for  bringing  the  republic  wholly  under  his  authority. 
By  a  clerical  error  in  a  petition  his  style  was  written  Sove- 
reign (Gosoudar),  instead  of  Lord  (Gospodin).  A  nod  is 
as  good  as  a  wink  to  an  Argus-eyed  prince.  Ivan  thanked 
the  citizens  for  their  voluntary  submission  and  assumed  the 
new  title.  Novgorod  rose  in  angry  rebellion  against  this 
last  blow  at  her  independence  ;  the  faction  of  Martha  lifted 
its  head  anew,  and  the  eyes  of  all  men  turned  towards  the 
King  of  Poland.  But  from  that  quarter  came  no  help. 
Kazimir  was  engaged  in  a  struggle  with  Matthias  of  Hungary 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  Teutonic  Order  on  the  other,  and 
had,  moreover,  to  maintain  his  son  Vladislas  on  the  throne 
of  Bohemia  ;  hence  he  was  not  in  a  position  to  court  the 
hostility  of  the  Prince  of  Moskva.  Novgorod  had  to  front 
alone  the  overwhelming  forces  which  Ivan  led  against  her. 
The  Archbishop  Theofil  flitted  backwards  and  forwards 
between  the  city  and  the  Prince's  camp,  but  saw  never  a 
sign  of  yielding  on  that  impassive  countenance  ;  saw  only 
fresh  troops  arriving  to  swell  the  monarch's  array.  The 
unequal  struggle  could  have  but  one  end.  "  Who  can  resist 
God  and  Great  Novgorod  ?  "  The  proud  sphinx-riddle  had 
at  last  been  answered,  and  the  republic  perished,  strangled 
in  the  toils  of  autocracy.  As  Gosoudar  Ivan  entered  the  i477 
humbled  city  the  sovereign  functions  of  vetche  and  posadnik 
were  abolished,  and  the  whole  province  of  Novgorod  was 
added  to  the  domain  of  Moskva.  Loaded  with  an  enormous 
booty,  wrenched  by  way  of  fine  from  the  citizens,  the  Grand 
Prince  returned  to  his  capital,  bearing  with  him  as  prisoners 
many  of  the  merchants  and  boyarins  of  the  disaffected  party, 
and  the  bereaved  Martha,  the  Helen  of  this  smitten  Troy. 
Bearing  also  a  yet  more  notable  captive,  the  great  bell  of 

Donskoi  are  adorned  in  some  cases  with  the  image  of  a  cock,  above  which  is 
portrayed  a  small  animal,  which  might  represent  a  fox,  beaver,  or  marten.  Pre- 
vious to  this  the  tokens  were  usually  stamped  with  a  rude  representation  of  the 
reigning  prince  or  of  a  local  saint. 


156  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Yaroslav,  which  for  many  a  hundred  year  had  hung  like  a 
watchful  sprite  in  its  beetling  belfry,  had  clanged,  boomed, 
and  sobbed  its  summonses  to  council,  strife,  or  revelry,  had 
roused  the  sleepy  monks  in  many  a  marsh-girt  monastery, 
and  witched  with  muffled  echoes  the  seals  of  Lake  Ilmen — 
this  voice  of  Novgorod's  liberty  was  borne  away  in  the  con- 
queror's train,  to  be  hung  in  the  new  Ouspienskie  Cathedral 
at  Moskva,  and  eat  out  its  life  in  droning  solemn  flatteries 
on  Moskovite  high-days.  Perchance  as  they  lifted  it  down 
from  its  long -accustomed  tower  it  clashed  forth  one  last 
discordant  knell,  a  passing-bell  for  the  soul  of  the  great 
republic. 

Whatever  hopes  the  Roman  Pontiffs  had  built  on  the 
marriage  they  had  negotiated,  they  were  doomed  to  be  dis- 
appointed. Sophie  Paleologus,  so  far  from  converting  her 
husband  to  the  Latin  faith,  had  adopted  the  Orthodox  religion 
almost  as  soon  as  she  entered  Russia,^  and  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Florence  were  worse  than  abortive  as  far  as 
Moskva  was  concerned.  Nor  was  it  likely  that  Ivan,  saddled 
with  his  own  subjection  to  the  sword  of  the  Prophet,  was 
going  crusading  against  the  Ottoman  power  in  South  Europe. 
Popular  tradition,  indeed,  gave  his  wife  credit  for  turning  his 
energies  towards  the  off-throwing  of  this  same  Mongol  yoke, 
which  was  incompatible  with  the  new  ideas  of  princely 
dignity.  The  initiative,  however,  appears  to  have  come  from 
the  other  side.  Akhmet,  Khan  of  Astrakhan,  either  sensible 
of  the  growing  independence  of  Moskva,  or  acting  at  the 
instance  of  the  King  of  Poland,  seized  upon  a  moment  when 
Ivan  was  embroiled  in  a  quarrel  with  his  brothers  (Boris  and 
1452  Andrei  the  elder)  to  march  against  this  too-uplifted  vassal. 
Kazimir  having,  by  the  Peace  of  Olmutz  (1479),  closed  the 
war  with  Hungary,  was  in  a  position  to  second  Akhmet's 
attack.  The  political  genius  of  Ivan  was  equal  to  the 
emergency.  By  wise  concessions  he  dispelled  his  brothers' 
resentment  and  presented  a  united  front  to  the  invaders, 
while  his  friendship  with  Mengli-Girei,  the  Khan  of  the  Krim 
Tartars,  enabled  him  to  send  the  Krimskie  horsemen  raiding 
1  Le  pere  Pierling,  La  Russie  et  P Orient. 


VII 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  157 


into    Lit'uania — -an    efifective    counter -stroke    to    Kazimir's 
intrigues  with  the  eastern  khanate.      Face  to  face  in  equal 
struggle  with  the  enemy,  the  Grand   Prince  showed  none  of 
the  impatient  war-horse-snorting  ardour  which  was  expected 
of  him  ;  showed  rather  a  spirit  of  misgiving  and  vacillation, 
which  had  to  be  goaded  by  women  and   ecclesiastics  before 
it  could  be  wound  up  to  the  necessary  pitch.      This  unwill- 
ingness to  fight  need  not  be  set  down  unhesitatingly  to  want 
of  courage.      Erst  wage,  dann  wage,  the  motto  of  a  world- 
wise  man  of  a  later  day,  was  the  life-motive  of  this  wary  yet 
strenuous  kniaz,  and  he  had   good   reason  to  pause  before 
staking  the  existence  of  his  monarchy  on   a  pitched   battle 
with  Akhmet.      The  disaster  which  befell  Vitovt,  and   the 
equally  unprofitable  sequel  to  the  victory  of  Dimitri  Donskoi, 
warned  Ivan  of  the  risk  he  ran  in  courting  a  like  experience. 
With  a  little  patience,  a  little  more  feigned  submission,  Moskva 
would  see  the  power  of  the  Horde  crumble  away  of  its  own 
corrosive  action  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  defeat  of  the  Grand 
Prince's  army  would  place  his  territories  at  the  mercy  of  the 
real  enemy,  and  the  aggrandisement  of  the  Polish-Lit'uanian 
crown  would   be    a  death-blow  to  Moskovy,       For  months 
the  two  armies  faced  each  other  on  opposite  banks  of  the 
Ougr,  Ivan   urged  by  his  soldiers  and   by  the  fiery  Vassian, 
Archbishop  of  Rostov,  to  strike  a  blow  against  the  impious 
enemy  of  God,  and  the  impious  one  waiting  for  Lit'uanian 
succours  before  attacking  Ivan.      At  length  the  approach  of 
winter  froze  the  dividing  river  and  left  no  further  obstacle  to 
defer  the  contest.      But  the  final  snapping  of  the  Mongol 
yoke  was  to  be  effected  in  a  manner  which  partook  of  the 
ridiculous  rather  than  the  heroic.      Ivan  gave  orders  to  his 
boyarins  to  withdraw  the  army  to  a  position  more  favourable 
for  receiving  the  attack  ;  the  backward  movement  engendered 
a  panic  among  the   Russians,  and  the  retreat  was  changed 
into  a  flight.      On  the  other  bank   of  the  Ougr  the  Mongols 
were   alarmed    to    find    that    the    foe  whom   they  had  been 
watching  so  closely  for  months  had  suddenly  vanished  ;  a 
flank  attack,  a  rear  attack,  some  unseen  horror,  was  evidently 
creeping  upon  them,  and  the  hosts  of  Akhmet  raced   away 


158  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

from  Moskovite  soil  as  though  all  the  saints  of  the  Orthodox 
calendar  had  been  mobilised  against  them.  Ivan,  like  many 
another  frozen-blooded  strategist,  had  won  by  waiting,  and 
might  now  turn  his  undivided  and  untrammelled  energies 
towards  the  western  foe. 

The  dynasty  of  Yagiello  had  emerged  from  its  lair  in 
the  Lit'uanian  forests  at  a  moment  when  the  old  reigning 
families  of  Poland,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia  were  dying  out, 
and  it  seemed  not  unlikely  that  this  new  and  vigorous  stock 
would  gather  up  the  fallen  threads  of  Piast,  Arpad,  and 
Premyslide,  and  weave  together  a  powerful  Slav -Magyar 
Empire.  Already  in  outward  appearance  a  considerable 
step  towards  this  goal  had  been  made.  Kazimir  Yagiello- 
vitch  had  re-united  the  Polish  and  Lit'uanian  lands  under 
his  sceptre,  West  Russia  was  entirely  in  his  hands,  Pomerellen 
and  West  Prussia  had  been  wrested  from  the  Order,  and  one 
of  his  sons  filled  the  Bohemian  throne  ;  in  Hungary  his 
pretensions  were  only  held  in  check  by  the  vigour  of  Matthias 
Hunnyades.  Against  this  wide-stretching  dominion  the 
Grand-principality  of  Moskva  was  pitted  in  a  struggle  as 
deadly  as  any  that  was  waged  between  kindred  species  of 
life  in  far  primaeval  days.  And  for  this  struggle  Moskva 
was  the  more  strongly  equipped,  despite  her  disparity  of 
forces,  by  the  solidly-wrought  cohesion  into  which  centuries 
of  adversity  had  hammered  her.  Nor  did  her  ruler  rely  for 
success  on  his  own  unaided  resources  ;  besides  his  familiar 
sprite  of  the  steppes,  the  Krim  Tartar  Khan,  Ivan  drew  into 
a  league  of  suspended  hostility  Matthias  of  Hungary — the 
great  stumbling-block  to  Polish  expansion — and  Stefan  VI., 
Hospodar  of  Moldavia.  The  latter  Prince,  whose  efforts 
had  raised  his  country,  almost  for  the  first  time  in  her 
chequered  history,  to  a  position  of  independence,  and  whose 
exploits  against  the  Turks  had  gained  for  him,  from  Sixtus 
IV.,  the  title  of  V Athlete  du  Christ,  was  allied  with  the 
Moskovite  princely  family  by  the  marriage  of  his  daughter 
with  the  young  Ivan,  son  of  the  Grand  Prince  by  his  first 
wife,  Mariya  of  Tver.  The  outcome  of  these  preparations 
was  not  open   war  ;    the  two  powers  remained  snarling  at 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  159 

each  other  and  watching  for  some  favourable  opportunity 
for  attack,  Ivan  looked  on  complacently  while  Mengli- 
Girei  made  an  inroad  upon  the  Podolian  lands  and  plundered 
Kiev,  while  on  the  other  side  Kazimir  was  believed  to  have 
incited  the  Order  to  hostilities  against  Moskva.^  Ivan's 
forces,  however,  overawed  the  Teutons,  and  in  another 
direction  Kazimir's  designs  were  frustrated  ;  a  counter 
matrimonial  alliance,  between  Mikhail  of  Tver  and  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  King  of  Poland,  was  nipped  in  the  bud  by 
the  Grand  Prince's  vigilance,  and  soon  afterwards  the 
Tverskie  kniaz,  detected  in  an  intrigue  with  Kazimir,  was  1485 
forced  to  fly  from  Ivan's  vengeance.  The  little  principality, 
which  had  been  for  centuries  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Moskva, 
was  swallowed  up  in  the  Grand  Prince's  dominions,  and 
Kazimir  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  his  enemy  grow 
stronger  instead  of  weaker  as  a  result  of  this  diplomatic 
skirmishing. 

If  the  Polish  King  counted  on  wearying  Ivan  into  some 
rash  or  negligent  act  of  open  hostility  or  wanton  enterprise 
he  knew  not  his  man.  The  Moskovite  never  undertook  a 
task  greater  than  his  forces  were  able  to  accomplish,  or 
attempted  to  hold  more  than  he  could  with  safety  manage. 
Hence  his  resources  were  never  exhausted,  and  the  long 
period  of  pent  hostility  was  turned  on  his  part  to  solid 
advantage.  The  small  appanages  of  Rostov  and  Yaroslavl 
shared  the  fate  of  Tver  and  Novgorod,  Viatka  was  reduced 
to  submission,  Perm  and  the  silver-yielding  region  of  the 
Petchora  were  added  to  the  sovereignty,  and  Kazan,  long  a  1487 
scourge  to  the  Volga  Russians,  fell  into  the  power  of  the 
Grand  Prince.  Ivan  set  a  vassal  Khan  on  the  throne  of  this 
new  dependency,  reserving  for  himself  the  title  of  Prince  of 
Bulgaria.  A  new  title,  indeed,  was  becoming  necessary  to 
describe  the  august  being  who  was  emerging  from  the 
cocoon  state  of  a  Prince  of  Moskva,  and  Ivan  henceforth 
begins  to  style  himself  Tzar  in  his  foreign  correspondence.- 

^  Gennad    Karpov,  Istoriya    Bor'bui   Moskovskago   Goscnidarstva   j'    PoFsko- 
Litovskim,  1 462- 1 508. 

-  The  title  Tzar,  formerly  reproduced  in  West  European  spelling  as  Czar, 


i6o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

The  growing  power  and  importance  of  the  Moskovite 
state,  emerged  from  its  Tartar  thraldom  and  hallowed  by 
its  connection  with  the  dead  Byzantine  past,  brought  it 
more  into  contact  with  the  western  world  from  which  it  had 
drifted  so  far  apart.  Like  the  hero  of  the  Dutch  romance, 
revisiting  the  haunts  of  early  life  after  his  protracted  slumber, 
Russia  was  renewing  the  relations  she  had  held  with 
Christendom  before  her  opium-sleep  in  the  shadow  of  the 
Khans.  The  wily  and  patient  kniaz  had  a  double  purpose 
to  serve  in  encouraging  intercourse  with  the  western  princes : 
in  the  first  place,  to  seek  fresh  allies  against  the  arch-enemy, 
Poland  ;  in  the  second,  to  procure  for  his  beloved  capital  a 
share  of  the  progress  and  civilisation  which  was  then 
illuminating  Europe.  Embassies  and  presents  were  ex- 
changed with  the  Emperor  (Frederick  III.)  and  with  the 
young  Maximilian,  "  King  of  the  Romans."  The  death  of 
Matthias  (1490)  and  the  election  to  the  Hungarian  crown 
of  Ladislas,  King  of  Bohemia  and  son  of  Kazimir,  placed 
Maximilian  in  direct  opposition  to  the  House  of  Yagiello, 
and  Ivan  was  ready  to  join  with  the  Habsburg  in  an  attack 
on  the  common  enemy.  The  hostilities  in  Hungary  were, 
however,  cut  short  by  a  peace  based  on  one  of  the  "  family 
1491  compacts  "  so  dear  to  the  House  of  Austria,  and  Ivan,  in  his 
turn,  saw  the  power  of  his  foe  wax  stronger  in  spite  of  his 
diplomatic  efforts.     In  another  and  more  unexpected  direction 

was,  on  the  strength  of  a  surface  resemblance,  assumed  to  be  derived  from  Caesar, 
and  given  the  equivalent  value  of  the  German  Kaiser.  With  the  Russians  Tzar 
simply  meant  king  or  ruler,  and  was  indiscriminately  used  for  the  Greek 
Emperors,  the  Tartar  Khans,  and  the  Syrian  and  Jewish  potentates  mentioned 
in  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  Caesar  was  rendered  Kessar.  The 
word  korol,  which  also  signifies  king  in  their  language,  was  perhaps  borrowed 
from  the  Magyar  kiraly,  the  Kings  of  Hungary  being  for  a  long  time  the  only 
monarchs  so  designated  with  whom  they  had  any  dealings.  The  double-headed 
eagle,  adopted  at  almost  the  same  time  as  the  title  of  Tzar,  although  the  recog- 
nised symbol  of  "empire,"  was  not  originally  used  with  that  significance  in 
Russia ;  the  device  was  employed  (in  the  same  way  that  the  lilies  of  France 
were  incorporated  with  the  English  arms)  to  show  that  the  Prince  of  Moskva 
had  married  the  heiress  of  the  eastern  empire,  and  for  a  long  time  the  eagle 
occupied  a  secondary  position  to  the  S.  George  and  dragon  cognisance  of  Moskva 
on  the  seals  and  coins  of  the  Grand  Princes.  The  imperial  idea  was  a  plant  of 
foreign  conception  and  growth,  and,  indeed,  at  the  time  when  the  title  Tzar  first 
crept  into  use,  the  style  of  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias  might  have  been  borne 
with  almost  as  much  reason  by  the  King  of  Poland  as  by  the  Prince  of  Moskva. 


VII 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  i6l 


the  Grand  Prince  established  relations  of  friendship  ;  the 
Ottoman  power  had  already  stretched  its  grasp  over  Kaffa 
and  the  fertile  lands  of  the  Krim  peninsula,  and  Mengli- 
Girei  was  enrolled  among  the  vassals  of  the  Sultan  Bayezid 
II.  With  this  pacific  occupant  of  the  Throne  of  the  Faithful 
Ivan  exchanged  courtesies — a  sorry  miscarriage  of  the  hopes 
of  the  match-making  Pontiffs.  Doubtless  the  Russian  Prince 
saw  in  the  Sultan  a  possible  ally  against  the  new  King  of 
Hungary,  who  might  one  day  unite  on  his  head  the  crowns 
of  Poland  and  Lit'uania.  Not  in  this  direction,  however, 
were  travelling  the  energies  of  the  house  of  Yagiello. 
Kazimir  seemed  bent  on  providing  his  numerous  sons  with 
separate  kingdoms  and  principalities  ;  having  failed  in  his 
attempt  to  divide  the  crowns  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  he 
tried  to  secure  the  succession  of  his  second  son,  John- Albert,  to 
the  Polish  throne,  and  recommended  another  son,  Alexander, 
to  the  boyarins  of  the  grand  duchy.  Having  thus,  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  life-work  of  his  great  rival,  done  all  that  he 
could  to  ensure  the  disintegration  of  his  sovereignty,  the 
King  comfortably  sickened  of  a  fatal  disease  and  passed  1492 
away  with  the  famous  vtorietidum  ergo  on  his  lips.  Subse- 
quent events  fell  in  with  his  testamentary  wishes.  The 
Lit'uanians  elected  Alexander  as  Grand  Duke,  and  the 
Polish  Diet,  after  many  stormy  sittings,  recognised  John- 
Albert  as  its  sovereign — a  recognition  possibly  influenced 
by  the  arrival  on  the  scene  of  deliberation  of  1600  armed 
men  enlisted  on  that  Prince's  behalf^ 

The  enfeeblement  of  Lit'uania  by  reason  of  its  separation 
from  Poland  invited  the  long-nursed  hostility  of  the  Grand 
Prince  and  his  faithful  ally,  Mengli-Girei.  The  latter 
ravaged  the  Lettish  territories  in  the  south,  while  the  forces 
of  the  former  harried  all  along  the  Moskovite  border. 
Many  of  the  boyarins  and  petty  princes  subject  to  Alexander 
passed  over  to  the  service  of  a  monarch  who  was  of  their 
own  nationality  and  religion,  and  the  Grand  Duke  had  to 
signalise  his  accession  by  buying  off  the  hostility  of  Ivan 
with  the  surrender  of  some  frontier  lands.      On  these  terms 

1  Schiemann,  Russland,  Polen,  u.  Livland. 
M 


1 62  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

1494  an   "  eternal    peace "   was    accommodated    between    the    two 
countries,  and  the  following  year  a  matrimonial  alliance  was 
effected    between    Alexander   and    Ivan's    daughter    Elena. 
Whatever    chance    might   have  existed    of  durable  concord 
between   a   weak    state   holding  conquered    territory  and    a 
strong  state  to  whom  that  territory  has  once  belonged  was 
extinguished   by  the  irritating  stipulations  with  which  this 
marriage  contract  bristled.      Uncomfortable  as  a  neighbour, 
Ivan  was  incompatible  as  a  father-in-law  ;    the  safeguards 
which  had  been  insisted  on  against  any  tampering  with  the 
Princess's  Orthodoxy  were  supplemented  by  minute  regula- 
tions with  regard  to  her  worship,  her  household,  even  her 
dress.      She  might  visit  a  Catholic  church  as  a  curiosity — 
twice  ;    she  was  to  eschew   Polish   costumes,  even  her  cooks 
were  of  Russian   selection.      In  fact,  her  Court  was  to  be  an 
Orthodox  Moskovite  oasis  in  the  Lit'uanian  desert.^      Alex- 
ander found    he    had    sacrificed    his  domestic  independence 
without     obtaining     any     compensating     security     for     his 
dominions  ;     the    restless    Hospodar   of    Moldavia   and    the 
Krimskie  Khan  continued  to  harry  the  Podolian  and  Galician 
lands,  and   the  Moskovites  v/ere  openly  aggressive  towards 
the   Grand    Duke's  subjects.       Ivan,   indeed,   at   this    period 
seems  to  have  rated   the  power  of  the   Yagiellos   cheaply, 
and   to  have  permitted   himself  a  diversion  in  the  affairs  of 
North-western  Europe.      Whether   he    had    secretly   nursed 
designs   against  the  merchants  of  the   Hansa   League,  who 
continued  to  maintain  a  flourishing  commerce  at   Novgorod 
after  the  civic  glories  had   departed   from  her,  or  whether  for 
once  his  coldly-measured  policy  was  influenced  by  an  unpent 
passion,  the  facts  scarcely  indicate.      The  spark  that  roused, 
or  gave  plausible  ground  for,  his  sudden  resentment  against 
the  unsuspecting  traders  was    the   torture   of   two   Russian 
subjects  at    Revel — who  were  boiled  to  death   for  coining 
false    money    and     otherwise    misconducting    themselves — 
coupled  with  an  insult  to  the  Grand  Prince.      Ivan  revenged 

^495  himself  by  swooping  down  on  the  famous  Hanse  factory  at 
Novgorod,  confiscating  all    the  merchandise   therein   stored, 

^  Karamzin. 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  163 

and  seizing  the  persons  of  forty-nine  merchants  of  Lubeck, 
Hamburg,  Munster,  Dortmund,  Revel,  Dorpat,  etc.  By  this 
raid  he  enriched  himself  with  a  sum  computed  at  a  million 
gulden,  but  the  Hansa  trade  with  Novgorod  and  Pskov  was 
diverted  to  Revel  and  the  Livlandish  towns.^  Skandinavian 
affairs  next  engaged  the  Grand  Prince's  attention,  and  the 
embarrassments  of  Sweden  offered  an  opportunity  for  wiping 
off  old  scores  with  that  ancient  enemy.  Under  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Regent  Sture  the  Swedes  had  broken 
away  from  the  Kalmar  Union,  and  refused  to  acknowledge 
as  their  sovereign  Johann,  Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  and 
King  of  Denmark  and  Norway  ;  with  this  monarch  Ivan 
entered  into  an  active  alliance,  and  the  bleak  uplands  and 
marsh -choked  forests  of  Finland  became  the  scene  of  an 
obstinate  war.  Ivangorod,  the  newly-built  Russian  frontier 
fortress  and  the  Swedish  outpost  of  Viborg  were  in  turn 
besieged  by  the  belligerents,  and  the  Finns  experienced  the 
calamities  to  which  border  peoples  are  particularly  liable. 
Neither  side  gained  any  important  advantage,  and  the  war 
was  brought  to  a  sudden  termination  by  the  election  of 
Johann  to  the  crown  of  Sweden. 

The  influence  of  Byzantine  ideas  which  had  permeated 
the  Moskovite  Court  showed  itself  in  a  series  of  sinister 
developments,  which  closely  reproduced  the  palace  intrigues 
for  which  the  Greek  capital  had  been  infamous.  By  the 
death  of  the  young  Ivan,  son  of  the  Grand  Prince  by  his  (1490) 
first  wife,  the  heirship  in  the  direct  line  had  devolved  upon 
the  former's  infant  son,  Dimitri  ;  a  formidable  competitor 
existed,  however,  in  Vasili,  eldest  son  of  Ivan  by  his  second 
marriage,  and  herein  lay  the  constituents  of  a  pretty  suc- 
cession dispute,  in  which  of  course  the  two  mothers,  Elena 
of  Moldavia  and  Sophie  Paleologus,  urged  with  inconvenient 
insistency  the  claims  of  their  respective  sons.  The  law  of 
hereditary  succession  was  an  exotic  plant  on  Russian  soil, 
and  men's  ideas  were  not  yet  sufficiently  fixed  to  remove  all 
question   of  doubt   on   the    subject.       For   a   comparatively 

1   Geschichte   (Ur    Ostseeprovinzen ;    Sartorius,    Geschichte   des   Hanseatischen 
Bundes ;  S.  Solov'ev,  htoriya  Rossie. 


i64  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

newly  established  Court  matters  were  carried  through  with 
remarkable  correctness  of  detail.  Plots  were  discovered 
— or  imagined,  tortures  extracted  confessions,  guilty  boyarins 
yielded  up  their  lives  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Moskva, 
Sophie  and  her  son  were  disgraced,  and  the  child  Dimitri 
solemnly  crowned  as  Ivan's  successor.  The  latter  decision 
may  have  been  influenced  by  a  desire  to  "  keep  in  "  with  the 
Hospodar  Stefan,  rather  than  by  any  scrupulous  regard  for 
hereditary  rights,  but  at  least  it  shows  how  little  the  heirship- 
of-the-Caesars  idea  had  taken  hold  of  Moskovite  minds. 
Renewed  intrigues  brought  about  a  reaction,  Sophie  and  her 
1499  son  were  restored  to  the  light  of  the  Grand  Prince's  counte- 
nance, and  another  batch  of  executions  and  imprisonments, 
among  the  Dimitri  party  this  time,  restored  peace  and  happi- 
ness to  the  domestic  circle.  Vasili  was  decorated  with  the 
title  of  Prince  of  Novgorod  and  Pskov,  and  the  succession 
remained  for  the  present  a  reopened  question. 

Meanwhile  the  eternal  peace  was  showing  signs  of  the 
decay  to  which  such  institutions  are  liable.  In  August 
1499  appeared  at  Moskva  the  ambassador  of  Lit'uania, 
one  Stanislav  GHebovitch,  big  with  grievances  against  the 
Grand  Prince.  Stefan  of  Moldavia  was  threatened  by  the 
all-devouring  Turk  ;  would  Ivan  unite  with  the  sovereigns 
of  Lit'uania,  Poland,  and  Hungary  on  his  behalf?  Why 
had  Ivan,  notwithstanding  the  peace,  incited  Mengli-Girei  to 
raid  the  Grand  Duke's  territories  ?  And  if  Alexander  con- 
ceded to  Ivan  the  title  "  Sovereign  of  all  Russia,"  would  the 
latter  promise  to  renounce  all  claim  on  Kiev  for  himself  and 
his  heirs  ?  To  the  last  of  these  propositions  Ivan  returned 
a  scornful  negative.  With  regard  to  the  suggested  crusade 
he  was  ready  to  give  assistance  to  Stefan  when  the  latter 
should  personally  ask  for  it.  The  charge  concerning  MengH, 
which  could  not  be  denied,  was  met  by  counter-recrimina- 
tions respecting  Alexander's  intrigues  with  the  Golden 
Horde.  The  irritation  felt  at  Vilna  at  the  uncompromising 
attitude  of  the  Grand  Prince  towards  the  proposals  put 
forward  by  this  mission  was  not  allowed  to  calm  down, 
Ivan  presented  on  his  part  a  batch  of  complaints  concerning 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  165 

the  non-fulfilment  of  various  items  in  the   Princess   Elena's 
marriage  agreement,  and  the  alleged  forced  conversion  of  the 
Grand    Duke's    Russian  subjects   to  the   Latin   faith.       The 
amenities  of  religion  gave  the  finishing  touch  to  an  already- 
overstrained  situation.      Lit'uania  and  the  Russian  provinces 
included    within     its     political     bounds    swarmed    with    an 
aristocratic  population  of  boyarin-princes,  some  offshoots  of 
the  prolific  stock  of  Rurik,  others  descendants  of  Gedimin. 
The  Russian  and  Orthodox  among  them   naturally  inclined 
towards  the  rising  power  of  Moskva,  while  among  the  Letts 
were  many  who  bore  no  affection  to  the  Yagiellos  and  were 
disposed  rather  to  cast  in   their  lot  with  the  all-conquering 
Grand    Prince.       Even    the    grandsons    of    Shemiaka   were 
drawn    back    to    the    allegiance    which    their    forbears    had 
deserted  ;    in    short,    all    along    the    border    there    was    an 
uprising  of  princes  and  voevodas  on  behalf  of  the   Prince  of 
Moskva. 

With  the  melting  of  the  winter  snows  both  sides  prepared 
to  take  the  field.  The  Tartars  of  the  Krim  steppes  turned 
the  noses  of  their  wiry  little  horses  towards  the  west ;  those 
of  Kazan  pushed  along  the  wooded  valley  of  the  Upper 
Volga  to  swell  the  war-bands  gathering  at  Moskva ;  the 
Grand  Prince's  own  horse-carls  (with  their  quaint  equip- 
ment of  sabre,  bow  and  arrows,  mace,  kisten,^  and  whip,  and 
their  heavy  quilted  jerkins)  clambered  on  to  their  sturdy 
shaggy-heeled  steeds  and  marshalled  themselves  under  their 
respective  boyarins  and  captains  ;  the  bulbous  domes  and 
campaniles  of  the  magnificent -grown  city  re-echoed  the 
pealing  war-notes,  and  in  wood  and  wold  howled  S.  George's 
dogs "  in  chorus,  in  anticipation  of  the  good  times  coming. 

Neither  prince  commanded  his  army  in  person  ;  each 
in  fact  was  employed  in  weaving  alliances  against  the  other. 
The  main  body  of  the  Moskovite  troops  was  under  the 
direction  of  the  voevoda  Yakov  Zakharievitch  ;  the  Letts 
were  generalled  by  the  hetman  Konstantin  Ostrojhskie.      All 

^  A  spiked  iron  ball  attached  by  a  flexible  thong  to  a  short  staff. 
2  The  wolves.     S.  George  occupies  the  delicate  position  of  patron-saint  of  the 
wolves  as  well  as  of  flocks  and  herds. 


i66  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  advantage  of  preparedness  lay  with  the  Moskovites,  who 
in  fact  had  taken  possession  of  several  Lit'uanian  places 
while  the  Grand  Duke  was  still  in  the  negotiating  stage. 
Alexander  awoke  from  his  chafing  and  peeving  and  yielding 
to  find  that  his  parent  terrible  was  ensconced  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  border,  and  the  detestable  Mengli-Girei,  who 
hunted  in  couple  with  the  Grand  Prince,  was  careering 
unchecked  through  Podolia  and  Galicia  ;  also  the  interesting 
champion  of  Christendom,  who  loved  the  Poles  no  better  than 
he  loved  the  Turks,  was  preparing  to  make  a  hostile  incur- 
sion upon  the  same  provinces.  The  Grand  Duke  on  his  part 
made  overtures  to  the  Order  and  dispatched  couriers  to  Shikh- 
Akhmat,  Khan  of  Astrakhan,  and  mortal  enemy  of  Mengli. 

The  superiority  in  warfare  which  had  distinguished  the 
Letts  under  their  early  princes  seemed  to  have  been  lost  at 
this  juncture,  and  the  first  collision  between  the  opposing 
July  1500  forces — on  the  plain  of  Mit'kov,  by  the  banks  of  the  Vedrosh 
— resulted  in  a  complete  victory  for  the  Moskovites.^  The 
hetman  and  many  Lit'uanian  pans  were  taken  prisoners,  and 
there  was  joy  in  the  bulb-topped  city.  The  position  of  the 
long-time  enemies  was  exactly  reversed  ;  the  Moskovite  and 
Tartar  armies  swept  all  before  them  in  the  open  country, 
but  the  fortified  citadels  of  Polotzk,  Smolensk,  Vitebsk,  and 
other  border  strongholds  resisted  the  attacks  of  the  invaders, 
as  the  Kreml  had  defied  those  of  Olgerd  and  Vitovt  in 
bygone  days.  In  the  south-west  the  Krim  hordes,  led  by 
Mengli-Girei's  son,  burnt  Kremenetz,  Lublin,  and  many  other 
towns  and  gorodoks.  Unable  to  make  a  respectable  resist- 
ance to  his  enemies  on  either  side,  Alexander  engaged 
himself  in  a  feverish  activity  of  negotiation.  In  January 
I  501  ambassadors  from  Ladislav  of  Hungary-Bohemia  and 
Albert  of  Poland  journeyed  to  Moskva  on  a  fruitless  errand 
of  mediation.  Urgent  remonstrances  were  dispatched  from 
Vilna  to  Moldavia,  begging  the  Athlete  du  Christ  to  be 
athletic  in  any  other  direction  than  that  of  the  grand  duchy, 
while  anxious  endeavours  were  made  to  enlist  the  aid  of  the 
German  Order  against  the  victorious  Moskovite.      The  office 

^  Karpov,  htoriya  Bor'bui,  etc. 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  167 

of  Land-Master  of  Livland  was  filled  at  this  moment  by  the 
able  warrior  Walter  von  Plettenberg,  and  though  crippled  in 
power  and  dominion  since  the  disastrous  field  of  Tannenberg, 
the  knights  were  still  a  formidable  fighting  force.  Little 
reason  had  they  to  love  the  Yagiellos,  but  at  this  moment 
Teutonic  feeling  was  more  inflamed  against  the  phcenix- 
growth  of  the  new  Russian  power  that  had  arisen  from  the 
ashes  of  Mongol  devastation.  The  Order  saw  the  hand  that 
armed  Pskov  and  Izborsk  against  its  territories  ;  the  Hansa 
merchants  thought  of  the  violence  done  to  their  trading 
rights  at  Novgorod  ;  and  the  empire  felt  jealous  of  the  rival 
sovereignty,  owning  neither  Pope  nor  Kaiser,  which  threatened 
to  make  the  late  Emperor's  fatuous  monogram  more  illusory 
than  ever.^  Taking  advantage  of  this  latent  hostility, 
Alexander  was  able  to  bring  about  an  offensive  alliance 
between  himself  and  the  Order,  into  which  also  entered  the 
sovereign  ecclesiastics  of  Riga,  Revel,  Dorpat,  Oesel,  and 
Pilten.  This  new  phase  of  the  struggle  was  heralded  by 
the  arrest  of  200  Russian  merchants  at  Dorpat,  a  belated 
reprisal  for  the  affair  of  Novgorod.  Ivan  dispatched  towards 
the  Livlandish  border  an  army  of  Moskovites  and  Pskovians, 
computed  to  have  been  40,000  strong.  Against  this  array 
von  Plettenberg  could  only  bring  into  action,  at  a  locality 
10  verstas  from  Izborsk,  a  force  of  4000  knights  and  some 
irregulars.  The  Germans,  however,  were  well  supplied  with 
artillery,  and  the  noise,  perhaps  more  than  the  execution,  of 
their  fire-belching  implements  of  war  caused  a  panic  among 
the  Russians,  who  fled  in  confusion.  And  here  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  Russian  warriors  of  that  period  were  some- 
what liable  to  these  sudden  stampedes  ;  as  a  contemporary 
observer  neatly  remarks,  "  They  make  the  first  charge  on 
the  enemy  with  great  impetuosity,  but  their  valour  does  not 
seem  to  hold  out  very  long,  for  they  seem  as  if  they  would 
give  a  hint  to  the  enemy,  as  much  as  to  say,  '  if  you  do  not 
flee,   we    must' "  ^       Without    straining    a    point  it    may  be 

1  A.E.I.O.U.      Alles  Erdreich  ist  Oesterreich  unterthan. 

Austria  est  imperare  orbi  universe. 
^  Baron  Sigismund  von  Herberstein,  Herttm  Moscoviticorum  commentarii. 


I68  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

assumed  that  this  HabiHty  to  panic  was  in  some  measure 
due  to  the  superstitious  coddHng  of  their  religion,  which 
depicted  angels  and  saints  and  Bogoroditzas  as  ready,  on 
suitable  occasions,  to  interfere  with  effect  on  their  behalf; 
consequently  if  the  enemy  stood  his  ground  for  any  length 
of  time  the  disheartened  warriors  experienced  an  uneasy 
lama  sabactliani  feeling  that  all  was  not  well  with  them 
in  the  desired  quarter,  and  demoralisation  ensued.  The 
stubbornly  contested  field  of  Koulikovo  scarcely  furnishes 
the  exception  which  "  proves  the  rule,"  as  on  that  occasion 
the  Metropolitan  had  announced  that  victory  would  only  be 
attained  after  much  fighting.^ 

This  ignominious  collapse  left  Pskov  to  receive  the  full 
fury  of  von  Plettenberg's  attack,  and  the  citizens  in  despera- 
tion prepared  to  make  a  more  creditable  stand  behind  their 
walls  than  they  had  done  in  the  field.  But  the  threatened 
blow  did  not  fall  ;  a  pestilence  of  some  severity  broke  out 
among  the  "  iron  men,"  and  the  army  of  the  Order  was 
obliged  to  return  to  quarters. 

Another  change  came  over  the  complexion  of  affairs. 
John -Albert  had  terminated  an  inglorious  reign  by  a  fit 
of  apoplexy  in  the  month  of  June,  and  on  the  23rd  October 
the  Polish  Diet  elected  Alexander  to  the  vacant  throne. 
This  event  did  not  strengthen  his  hands  as  much  as  might 
have  been  expected.  The  Polish  pans  and  nobles  were  a 
turbulent  self-seeking  class,  and  were  not  likely  to  rush 
recklessly  to  the  defence  of  Lit'uania  while  their  new 
monarch  stayed  quietly  at  home  and  tampered  possibly 
with  their  precious  privileges.  Ivan  on  the  other  hand, 
undeterred  by  the  reverse  near  Izborsk,  prosecuted  the  war 
with  persistent  energy.  Employing  the  best  possible  method 
for  heartening  his  troops  against  the  Teutons,  he  sent  them 
ravaging  into  Livland  on  the  heels  of  the  retreating  army. 
Another  victory  was  obtained  over  the  Lit'uanians,  while 
Shikh-Akhmet,  who  had   made  a  diversion  against  Mengli 

^  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  these  remarks  do  not  apply  to  the 
Russian  soldier  of  modern  history,  who  has  displayed  his  best  qualities  under 
adverse  circumstances. 


vn 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  PALEOLOGI  169 


on  the  east,  was  chased  out  of  his  dominions  by  the  alUed 
Moskovite  and  Krim  forces.  Thus  darkly  for  Alexander 
closed  the  year  1501.  Ivan  had  maintained  his  ground  in 
every  direction,  and  had  inflicted  grievous  harm  on  the 
allies  of  Poland.  His  Russian  and  Tartar  cavalry  had 
raided  unchecked  round  Neuhausen,  Marienburg,  and  the 
cathedral  lands  of  Dorpat,  the  autumn  floods  and  consequent 
state  of  the  roads  preventing  the  heavy-armed  knights  and 
their  heavier  artillery  from  taking  the  field.  With  the 
first  frosts  the  invaders  withdrew  across  the  border,  followed 
by  the  indefatigable  Land-Master,  who  at  last  was  able  to 
abandon  his  enforced  inaction.  His  hastily  gathered  forces 
were,  however,  outmatched  by  the  superior  numbers  of  the 
marauders,  and  in  an  encounter  at  Helmet  (25th  November) 
the  Germans  were  beaten  back  and  300  of  the  episcopal 
troops  of  Dorpat  left  upon  the  field.^ 

The  war  dragged  on  throughout  the  early  months  of  the 
new  year ;  a  waiting  game  obviously  suited  Ivan's  plans 
and  there  was  none  to  force  his  hand.  The  dread  of 
Russian  -  Tartar  raids  made  the  Livlander  prelates  and 
burggreves  chary  of  sending  off  their  lanzknechts  to  the 
support  of  the  Land-Master,  and  von  Plettenberg  was  for 
a  long  time  unable  either  to  clear  his  borders  of  the  free- 
booting  bands,  or  to  carry  the  hostilities  into  the  enemy's 
country.  From  Alexander  came  no  help,  only  couriers 
with  promises.  The  King  was  prodigal  with  his  messengers 
and  tireless  in  sketching  plans  of  campaign  for  himself  and 
his  allies  ;  the  only  detail  which  he  allowed  himself  to 
neglect  was  the  carrying  out  of  his  share  of  the  preconcerted 
action.  This  omission  placed  his  friends  in  awkward 
predicaments  ;  Shikh-Akhmet  was  a  m.iserable  fugitive,  von 
Plettenberg  found  himself  facing  the  whole  Moskovite 
fighting  strength,  except  that  detachment  which  was  leisurely 
besieging  Smolensk,  Autumn  witnessed  a  quickening  of  the 
situation.  Still  trusting  to  Alexander's  fly-blown  promises, 
the  Land-Master  assumed  the  aggressive  and  trained  his 
ponderous    artillery    against    the    walls    of     Pskov.       The 

^  Schiemann. 


170  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

burghers  saw  their  battlements  and  ramparts  crumble  away 
beneath  the  thundering  cannonade  of  the  mighty  siege- 
pieces,  and  day  by  day  weaker  grew  the  defences  which 
divided  them  from  their  bitterest  enemies.  But  while  no 
Polish  troops  put  in  an  appearance,  the  hearts  of  the  besieged 
were  gladdened  by  the  sight  of  the  tossing  manes  of 
thousands  of  Tartar  horses  and  the  conical  head-dress  of 
thousands  of  Ivan's  warriors.  The  advancing  Russian  host 
was  large  enough  to  smother  the  slender  following  of  von 
Plettenberg,  but  the  iron -sheathed  German  knights  and 
footmen  were  capable  of  offering  a  stout  resistance  to  the 
arrows  and  even  the  trenchant  sabres  of  their  opponents. 
The  Land-Master  withdrew  his  force  to  the  shores  of  the 
Smolina  Lake,  where,  on  the  day  of  the  Exaltation  of  the 
Cross  (14th  September)  the  Black  Cross  warriors  commenced 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  battles  of  their  crowded  annals. 
For  three  days  they  held  the  field  against  the  stubborn 
attacks  of  the  whirlwind-sweeping  squadrons  ;  "  with  blood 
and  dust,"  says  an  old  chronicle,  "  both  steed  and  rider 
were  bedecked,  so  that  none  might  tell  the  colour "  ;  and 
when  finally  exhaustion  and  discouragement  deterred  the 
Russians  from  renewing  the  attack,  the  Iron  men  were  able 
to  claim  the  victory.  But  the  willing  horse  had  worked 
itself  to  a  standstill  ;  von  Plettenberg  was  obliged  to  lead 
his  scarred  and  weary  followers  homeward,  and  if  the 
Moskovites  were  too  crippled  to  re-commence  their  raids, 
at  the  same  time  the  Livlanders  were  forced  out  of  Russian 
territory.^ 

Meanwhile  in  another  direction  had  fallen  a  long 
impending  blow,  no  further  to  be  averted  by  the  eloquent 
epistles  of  the  Complete  Letter-writer.  The  redoubtable 
Hospodar,  nursing  against  Poland  the  remembrance  of 
recent  wrongs,  and  profiting  by  her  present  embarrassments, 
burst  suddenly  into  Galicia,  and  gleaned  where  the  Tartars 
had  harvested.  Several  towns  fell  with  little  resistance  into 
his  hands,  and  were  annexed  to  his  Moldavian  dominions. 
Not  in  accord  with   Ivan  was  this  invasion  undertaken,  for 

1  Schiemann,  Karpov. 


VII  THE  LAST  OF  THE  PA  LEO  LOG  I  171 


the  question  of  the  succession  to  the  Moskovite  throne  had 
caused  a  rupture  between  the  two  princes.  Mengli-Girei 
was,  in  fact,  the  pivot  on  which  the  anti- Polish  alliance 
turned  ;  the  Grand  Prince  was  not  on  good  terms  with  the 
Hospodar,  and  the  latter  could  not  be  considered  as  other- 
wise than  hostile  to  the  Turkish  Sultan,  but  Mengli  was 
the  friend  and  ally  of  all  three.  The  winter  of  1502-3 
found  matters  in  much  the  same  state  as  they  had  been 
twelve  months  earlier.  The  Grand  Prince's  troops  had 
been  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  of  Smolensk,  but  they  still 
retained  the  lands  they  had  seized  at  the  commencement 
of  the  war,  still  held  their  own  in  the  Baltic  districts.  A 
candidate  for  the  blessings  traditionally  allotted  to  the 
peacemaker  now  appeared  in  the  person  of  the  Pontiff,  who 
sought  to  bring  about  an  accommodation  between  the 
contending  sovereigns.  The  splendid  profligate  who 
occupied  the  throne  of  S.  Peter  was  not  actuated  by  a 
constitutional  or  professional  abhorrence  of  bloodshed  — 
under  his  pontificate  the  Eternal  City  had  been  a  shambles 
rather  than  a  sheepfold, — but  for  the  present  the  smiting 
of  the  Infidel  seemed  to  him  more  urgent  than  the  harrying 
of  the  Orthodox,  especially  as  the  Orthodox  seemed  well 
able  to  retaliate.  With  an  uncrushed  and  unappeased 
enemy  on  their  flank,  it  was  clearly  impossible  for  the 
kings  of  Hungary  and  Poland  and  the  Teutonic  Order  to 
join  in  the  crusade  by  which  the  Borgia  fondly  hoped  to 
sweep  the  Ottoman  from  Europe.  Hence  the  apparition 
of  this  very  soiled  dove  masquerading  with  an  olive  branch 
in  its  crimson  beak. 

Ivan  was  undoubtedly  master  of  the  situation,  and  was 
able  practically  to  dictate  his  own  terms,  which  he  proceeded 
to  do  notwithstanding  the  clamour  of  the  crowd  of  envoys 
and  ambassadors — Papal,  Hungarian,  Polish,  Teutonic,  and 
Livlandish  —  who  had  gathered  at  Moskva.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Grand  Prince  would  not  hear  of  an  "  eternal 
peace,"  but  limited  the  negotiations  to  the  arrangement  of 
a  six-years'  truce  (25th  March  1503  to  25th  March  1509). 
With   some   slight   remissions   the   Moskovites   retained    the 


I 


172  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

lands  they  had  laid  hands  on  during  the  war  ;  Tchernigov, 
Starodoub,  Poutivl,  Novgorod -Severski,  Briansk,  Toropetz, 
and  others,  in  all  nineteen  towns,  seventy  districts,  twenty-two 
gorodoks  (townlets),  and  thirteen  villages,  were  ceded  by 
Alexander  to  his  uncomfortable  father-in-law.^  The  Liv- 
landers,  who  had  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  war, 
were  left  as  much  in  the  lurch  by  their  graceless  ally  during 
the  negotiations  as  they  had  been  throughout  the  fighting, 
and  the  conditions  they  were  obliged  to  accept  to  participate 
in  the  truce  were  far  from  favourable.  The  Russian 
merchants  were  to  be  liberated  from  their  prisons  at  Dorpat  ; 
the  bishop  of  that  see  was  to  resume  payment  of  an  old 
tribute  of  wax  and  honey  to  the  Grand  Prince,  and  a  Greek 
church  was  to  be  erected  in  the  town.  The  Livlander 
prisoners  were  not  released  by  the  Moskovites,  and  against 
these  concessions  and  disadvantages  could  only  be  set  a 
clause  which  restricted  the  fishery  rights  of  the  Pskovians 
in  Lake  Peipus  to  the  east  shore."' 

The  Khan  of  the  Krim  steppes  was  not  directly  included 
in  the  truce,  though  Alexander  innocently  supposed  that 
Ivan's  ally  was  implicated  in  the  general  pacification  ;  the 
Grand  Prince  privately  took  care  to  prevent  Mengli-Girei 
from  sharing  this  impression,  and  the  Tartar  hordes  continued 
to  disquiet  the  Lit'uanian  provinces. 

Short  though  the  term  of  the  truce  was,  it  outlasted  the 
two  principals  who  within  a  few  months  of  each  other 
attained  that  eternal  peace  which  in  life  they  had  been 
unable  to  compact  for.  Ivan,  in  fact,  had  but  obtained  a 
breathing  space  in  which  to  arrange  the  affairs  of  his  family 
and  gosoudarstvo  before  closing  his  long  reign  of  forty-three 
years.  While  the  war  was  yet  being  waged  he  had 
definitely  broken  with  the  Moldavian  or  Dimitri  party, 
knowing  well  that  Stefan  could  neither  relinquish  nor 
Alexander  forgive  the  loss  of  the  towns  which  the  former 
had  wrested  from  Poland,  and  hence  that  no  imprudence 
on  his  part  would  unite  his  two  family  connections  against 
him.      Dimitri  had  been  stripped  of  his  prospective  title  and 

^  S.  Solov'ev.  2   Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 


VII 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  173 


guarded  as  a  prisoner  in  his  palace,  while  the  names  of 
himself  and  his  mother  were  struck  off  from  the  prayers 
of  the  Church.  This  step  was  followed  by  the  proclamation 
of  Vasili  as  the  Grand  Prince's  successor.  The  death  of 
Elena  in  1505,  and  of  the  Hospodar  a  year  earlier,  left  the 
youth  Dimitri  in  a  forlorn  and  friendless  condition. 

In  the  winter  of  1505  (27th  October)  Ivan  ended  his 
long  and  remarkable  reign.  The  sovereignty  which  he  relin- 
quished was  scarcely  to  be  recognised  as  the  same  which  had 
been  bequeathed  to  him  by  Vasili  the  Darkened.  From 
a  struggling  principality  it  had  shot  up  into  a  monarchy, 
struggling  still,  but  for  empire,  not  existence.  The  terrible 
humiliating  Mongol  yoke,  which  had  been  such  a  bitter 
reality  when  Ivan's  world  was  young,  seemed  now  the 
almost  forgotten  bogey  of  a  dimly-remembered  past.  A 
revolt  of  the  Khan  of  Kazan,  the  last  event  of  the  old  man's 
reign,  served  only  to  emphasise  the  fact  of  the  altered 
relations  between  Tartar  and  Moskovite.  Perm,  the  regions 
of  the  Petchora,  and  the  vast  boreal  territories  which  had 
belonged  to  the  republic  of  Novgorod  more  than  doubled 
the  extent  of  the  Grand-principality,  which  had  been  further 
swelled  by  the  absorption  of  Tver  and  Viatka,  and  the 
conquest  from  Lit'uania  of  the  Russian  lands  east  of  the 
Sojh.  The  standing  and  importance  of  the  Moskovite  State 
likewise  had  kept  pace  with  its  expansion  during  this  long 
reign,  and  the  policy  of  the  Kreml  was  a  matter  of  interest 
not  merely  to  Sarai  and  Riazan  and  Vilna  as  heretofore, 
but  to  Buda,  Constantinople,  Wien,  and  Rome,  to  Krakow, 
Kjobenhavn,  Upsal,  and  Koenigsberg. 

Such  was  the  inheritance  which  Vasili  III.  Ivanovitch 
received  from  the  cold  hands  of  his  father  ;  from  his  mother 
(who  had  died  in  1503)  he  derived  the  reflected  glory  which 
centred  in  the  last  of  the  Paleologi.  Embarrassments  too 
were  not  wanting  to  disquiet  the  opening  days  of  the  new 
reign.  Besides  the  revolt  of  Kazan,  the  suspended  hostilities 
with  Poland  and  Livland  threatened  the  future  repose  of 
the  State.  The  alert  and  provident  von  Plettenberg  was 
husbanding  his  resources  against  a  renewal  of  the  war,  and 


174  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

was,  moreover,  receiving  considerable  Teutonic  and  Catholic 
support.  A  loan  had  been  subscribed  on  his  behalf  by  the 
cities  of  Lubeck  and  Rostock,  and  the  Pope  had  diverted  to 
his  use  a  share  of  the  receipts  accruing  from  the  sale  of 
indulgences — an  ingenious  device  which  at  the  same  time 
equipped  the  gentlemen  of  God  against  the  heretics,  admitted 
more  souls  to  swell  the  triumph-song  of  Heaven,  and,  inci- 
dentally, enriched  the  coffers  of  Holy  Church.  Financial 
aid  was  also  forthcoming  from  Maximilian,  who  granted  to 
the  Land-Master  a  three  years'  privilege  to  exact  tolls  from 
all  ships  entering  Livlandish  harbours  (1505).^  The  policy 
of  the  Emperor  at  this  moment  halted  between  an  angry 
suspicion  of  the  house  of  Yagiello,  which  drew  him  towards 
a  good  understanding  with  Moskva,  and  a  jealous  solicitude 
for  the  German  colony  on  the  Baltic,  which  pulled  him  in 
the  opposite  direction.  Alexander,  relieved  of  the  nightmare 
incubus  of  his  terrible  father-in-law,  lost  no  time  in  resuming 
his  plaints  and  proposals  to  the  new  sovereign.  Would 
Vasili  restore  the  filched  territories  to  Lit'uania  and  peace 
to  the  two  countries  ?  To  which  the  Grand  Prince  replied 
that  he  was  willing  to  conclude  peace  on  the  condition  that 
Kiev  and  Smolensk  were  ceded  to  him.  Clearly  the  time 
was  not  yet  ripe  for  negotiation. 

In  August  of  1506  the  King  of  Poland  followed  his 
great  rival  to  the  grave,  cheered  on  his  death-bed  by  the 
rare  news  of  a  victory  over  the  Krim  Tartars.  Sigismund, 
another  son  of  Kazimir,  obtained  the  double  election  to  the 
Polish-Lit'uanian  throne. 

Meanwhile  Vasili  was  engaged  in  dealing  with  the  defiant 
Kazanese,  not  with  conspicuous  success.  The  Moskovite 
army,  led  by  the  Grand  Prince's  brother  Dimitri,  after  having 
in  turn  been  repulsed  by  the  enemy  and  victorious  in  a 
second  attack,  was  finally  taken  by  surprise  and  irremediably 
routed,  abandoning  in  its  flight  several  cannon.  Preparations 
for  another  expedition  were  countermanded  owing  to  the 
submission  of  the  Khan.  This  pacification  was  of  timely 
service  to  Moskva,  for  relations  with  Poland  became  suddenly 

1   Geschichte  cUr  Ostseeprovinzen. 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  175 

strained  and  the  truce  ceased  to  be  effective.  The  firefly 
who  led  both  parties  into  the  uncertain  issue  of  open  hostiHty 
was  a  Polish  pan,  Mikhail  Glinski,  celebrated  for  his  recent 
victory  over  the  Krim  horde.  Of  Tartar  extraction  and 
German  education,  this  restless  spirit  had  attached  himself 
to  the  Lit'uanian  Court,  where  his  success,  or  the  ambition 
ensuing  therefrom,  gained  him  many  enemies.  The  accession 
of  the  new  king  brought  matters  to  a  head,  and  Glinski 
demanded  justice  between  himself  and  his  detractors. 
Sigismund  procrastinated,  and  the  aggrieved  noble  went 
over,  with  all  his  followers,  to  the  service  of  Moskva, 
plundering  and  slaying  as  he  went.  Vasili  took  the  in- 
teresting waif  under  his  protection,  and  the  border  regions 
were  soon  well  alight  with  the  fires  of  war.  Russian  and 
Tartar  troops  followed  the  beck  of  the  stark  strife-kindling 
free-lance,  who  had  the  satisfaction  of  surprising  in  his  palace 
near  Grodno  the  pan  Jabrzczinski,  the  foremost  among  his 
calumniators.  "  Have  I  found  thee,  O  mine  enemy  }  "  With 
savage  glee  he  inflicted  the  death  penalty  on  his  foe,  and 
went  on  his  way  exulting.  In  the  month  of  June  Sigismund  1508 
appeared  on  the  scene  with  a  formidable  army  and  chased 
the  invaders  out  of  his  territory.  The  result,  however,  of  the 
whole  affair  was  favourable  to  Moskva  ;  a  peace  was  effected 
between  the  two  countries  which  confirmed  Vasili  in  the 
possession  of  his  father's  conquests  and  recognised  Glinski 
and  other  disaffected  Lit'uanians  as  Moskovite  subjects. 
The  Order,  as  usual,  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself,  and  von 
Plettenberg  saw  himself  with  some  alarm  standing  single- 
handed  against  Moskva,  with  only  a  few  more  months  of 
the  truce  to  run.  Vasili,  however,  raised  no  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  a  good  understanding  with  the  Germanic  knights 
and  Livlandish  prelates,  whom  it  was  to  his  interest  to 
detach  from  the  Polish  alliance,  and  a  fourteen  years'  peace  1509 
was  concluded  on  mutually  satisfactory  grounds.  Thus 
the  Grand  Prince  obtained  a  respite  from  the  exhausting 
neighbour-war,  which  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  resume 
the  great  work  of  consolidation  within  his  own  frontiers. 

Delivered  by  the  fourteen  years'  peace  from  the  state  of 


176  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

insecurity  which  had  been  almost  normal  with  them  for 
nearly  a  century,  the  Pskovians  might  possibly  have  looked 
forward  to  a  season  of  tranquillity  and  prosperity.  Tran- 
quillity they  were  certainly  to  have,  but  it  was  to  be  the 
repose  of  decay,  not  of  belaurelled  affluence.  The  Grand 
Prince,  also  delivered  from  the  embarrassments  of  a  foreign 
war,  revived  the  designs  which  had  long  been  harboured 
at  Moskva  against  the  independence  of  Pskov.  Betaking 
himself  and  his  Court  to  Novgorod  in  the  autumn  of  1509, 
he  summoned  thither  the  posadniks,  boyarins,  and  notables 
of  the  city  on  the  Peipus  to  give  an  account  of  their 
grievances  against  the  Governor,  Ivan  Obolenski,  who  had 
rendered  himself  unpopular.  Scarcely  had  the  deputed 
citizens  arrived  than  they  were  arrested  and  shut  up  in  the 
famous  archiepiscopal  palace,  which,  after  having  furnished 
a  prison  for  many  a  subject-ridden  kniaz,  now  became  a 
place  of  detention  for  those  who  were  under  the  sovereign's 
displeasure.  Without  a  struggle  Pskov  yielded  to  the  fate 
1510  of  her  "  elder  sister  "  Novgorod.  The  vetche  was  dissolved 
and  the  city  bell  borne  down  from  the  Troitza  tower.  Vasili 
was  faithfully  moving  in  the  path  marked  out  by  his 
predecessors. 

The  domestic  affairs  of  the  Grand  Prince's  Court  were 
tinged,  as  indeed  was  the  whole  Moskovite  life  at  this  period, 
with  a  strong  Asiatic  leaven.  Already  in  his  father's  life- 
time a  bride  had  been  chosen  for  him  by  a  method  which 
recalls  the  wooing  of  a  sultan  or  a  rajah  rather  than  that  of 
a  Christian  prince;  1500  of  the  most  eligible  damsels  of 
the  realm  were  gathered  together  for  inspection,  and  their 
number  gradually  weeded  down  to  ten.  These  were  medi- 
cally examined,  and  a  "  selection  of  the  fittest "  was  made 
in  the  person  of  Solomonia,  daughter  of  a  boyarin  of  no  very 
high  standing.  By  an  irony  of  circumstance  this  carefully 
picked  consort  disappointed  the  expectations  which  had 
been  formed  of  her,  and  the  prophecies  and  flatteries  which 
lie  in  wait  for  the  birth  of  a  royal  heir  were  baulked  of  their 
delivery.  The  absence  of  a  successor  in  the  direct  line  did 
not  ameliorate  the  lot  of  the  Grand  Prince's  nephew,  Dimitri. 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS 


177 


Since  the  accession  of  the  new  monarch  the  seclusion  of  the 
possible  rival  had  become  a  close  imprisonment,  and  his 
death  was  not  unduly  postponed.  In  Oriental  State  affairs, 
as  indeed  in  those  of  Western  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
it  is  a  safe  axiom  that  the  inconvenient  die  young.  Dimitri 
died.  Unavoidably,  the  chronicles  of  the  day  suggested 
foul  play,  and  he  would  not  have  been  the  only  Russian 
Prince  of  the  Blood  who  was  conducted  by  an  expeditious 
"  royal  road  "  through  this  vale  of  tears. 

Owing  to  the  renewed  importance  of  Russia  in  the  affairs 
of  Christendom,  and  the  observations  handed  down  to 
posterity  by  the  ambassadors  and  commercial  agents  who 
penetrated  into  the  bleak  and  reputedly  barbarous  regions 
of  '•  Muscouvie,"  the  appearance  and  life  of  the  isolated 
capital  in  this  century  stands  out  with  a  hitherto  unwonted 
clearness.  Hemmed  in  on  all  sides  with  thick  forests,  from 
whence,  down  the  Moskva  river,  was  floated  the  timber  of 
which  the  houses  were  mostly  built,  the  city  stood  in  a 
setting  of  open  meadows,  swarming  with  hares  and  roebuck, 
which  were  reserved  for  the  Grand  Prince's  exclusive  hunting. 
Fields  and  gardens  and  monasteries  straggled  so  far  into 
the  outskirts  (or  slobodas)  that  it  was  difficult  to  tell  exactly 
where  the  line  of  demarcation  lay  ;  for  besides  the  Moskva 
on  one  side,  and  the  ditch-like  Neglina  on  the  other,  there 
were  "  no  useful  defences  in  the  shape  of  walls,  fosses,  or 
ramparts."  ^  The  Kreml,  or  citadel,  and  in  time  the  inner 
quarters  of  the  town,  were  however  strongly  fortified.  As 
is  frequently  the  case  in  cities  with  Oriental  characteristics, 
squalor  and  magnificence  were  strangely  jumbled  together. 
Mean  huts  and  booths  were  interspersed  with  cupola-crowned 
churches  and  public  buildings,  which,  designed  for  the  most 
part  by  Byzantine  and  Italian  artists,  presented  a  quaint 
and  not  unpleasing  confusion  of  eastern  and  western  archi- 
tecture. Despite  the  "  forty  times  forty  churches "  which 
were  springing  up  all  over  Moskva,  the  cleanliness  which  is 
supposed  to  accompany  godliness  was  conspicuously  absent. 
"  This  city"  wrote  the  Imperial  ambassador  at  the  Court  of 

1  Herberstein. 

N 


178  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Vasili,  "  is  so  broad  and  spacious,  and  so  very  dirty,  that 
bridges  have  been  constructed  here  and  there  in  the  highways 
and  streets  and  in  the  other  more  distinguished  parts." 
Here,  then,  in  this  straggling  wood-built  metropolis,  this 
germ-cell  of  the  Russian  Empire,  dwelt  the  Grand  Princes 
who  were  slowly  evolving  into  Great  White  Tzars  ;  amid  a 
surrounding  of  cathedrals  and  mud,  holy  ikons  and  squalid 
hovels,  dedicated  gates  and  buildings  topped  with  quaint 
bulbous  domes  and  cupolas,  gold,  blue,  and  silver,  moved 
the  rulers  of  the  Moskovite  state.  Hedged  round  with 
dreary  ceremonial,  waited  on  by  courtiers  and  chamberlains 
and  servants,  clad  in  long  flowing  robes  that  smacked  more 
of  Bagdad  than  of  Rome  or  Wien,  the  sovereigns  of  "  all 
Russia"  dwelt  in  a  world  apart  from  outside  influences,  and 
could  only  measure  things  by  their  own  standard. 

As  in  a  rookery  at  the  approach  of  nesting-time  certain 

early  birds  may  be  seen   quietly  pursuing  their   constructive 

operations  amid  the  turmoil  and  racket  of  their  less  provident 

fellows,  so  all  over  Europe  at  this  epoch,  amid   the  anarchy 

which  attended  the  decay  of  feudalism,  the  work  of  building 

was  in  full  progress.      The  Habsburgs  and   Hohenzollerns  in 

the  Empire,  the  Valois  in   France,  the  Tudors   in   England, 

the  Moskovite  princes  in   Russia,  were  piecing  together  the 

foundations  of  what  were  eventually  to   be  the  five  Great 

Powers  of  a  transformed  Europe.      In  the  early  years  of  the 

sixteenth  century  it  seemed  not  improbable  that  the  Yagiellos 

would    create,  out  of  the    chaos  of  Polish,  Magyar,  Czech, 

Lettish,  and  West  Russian  lands,  a  personal  dominion  which 

might  crystallise  into  an   empire.      But  as  in  a  rookery,  to 

return  to  the  simile,  certain  unfortunately  situated  nests  suffer 

from  the  plundering  attentions  of  competing  builders,  so  the 

house  of  Yagiello  was  doomed   to  see  its  carefully  collected 

materials  snatched  away  in  the  predatory  acquisitions  of  the 

Austrian  archdukes,  the  Markgrafs  of  Brandenburg,  and   the 

Grand    Princes  of  Moskva.      And  not  only  had  the  kings  of 

Poland  fallen  among  thieves,  as  it  were,  but  their  hands  were 

more  or  less  tied  by  their  dependence  on  the  most  selfish 

of  all  governing  classes,  an  anti-monarchical  aristocracy. 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  179 

Between  Poles  and  Moskovites  neither  truce  nor  treaty 
could  long  be  effective,  and  war  soon  broke  out  anew  ; 
Sigismund  had  at  last  succeeded  in  detaching  the  Krim 
Tartars  from  the  Russian  alliance,  or,  more  probably,  the 
nomads  had  followed  their  own  lawless  inclinations  in  bursting 
upon  the  rich  cornlands  of  Riazan,  "  more  fertile  than  all 
the  other  provinces  of  Russia."  The  event  served  as  a 
pretext  for  Vasili  to  march  his  troops  into  Lit'uania  and 
besiege  Smolensk.  The  moment  was  favourable  for  a 
rupture.  The  King  of  Hungary  was  tottering  towards  his 
grave,  and  two  rival  parties  were  more  than  anxious  to 
constitute  themselves  guardians  of  his  youthful  son  and  his 
two  kingdoms.  In  this  struggle  Sigismund  found  himself 
opposed  to  the  Austrian  Archduke,  Maximilian,  head  of  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  ;  more  formidable,  perhaps,  in  the 
former  capacity  than  in  the  latter.  Besides  this  embarrass- 
ment, the  relations  between  Poland  and  the  military  Order 
were,  to  say  the  least,  strained.  The  election  (in  i  5  i  i )  of 
Albrecht,  of  the  House  of  Brandenburg,  to  the  office  of  Grand- 
Master,  had  given  new  vigour  to  the  knights,  who,  since  the 
disaster  of  Tannenberg,  had  been  chafing  against  the  Polish 
suzerainty.  With  the  support,  moral  and  material,  of  the 
Emperor,  the  Markgraf  Joachim,  and  the  Grand  Prince  of 
Moskva,  it  seemed  possible  that  this  over-lordship  might  be 
thrown  off.  Under  these  circumstances  Vasili  set  forth  in  Dec.  1512 
mid-winter,  attended  by  his  brothers  Urii  and  Dimitri,  by 
Mikhail  Glinski,  and  numerous  boyarins,  and  trailing  after 
him  in  sledges  his  unwieldy  artillery,  served  by  German 
gunners,  to  undertake  the  siege  of  Smolensk.  From  con- 
temporary accounts  this  important  border  city  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  very  elaborately  fortified,  but  its  defences 
were  sufficiently  strong  to  withstand  the  Grand  Prince's 
attack,  and  in  March  the  invading  army  returned  to  Moskva 
to  avoid  the  dangers  and  discomforts  of  the  approaching 
thaw.  In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  Vasili  reiterated 
the  attempt  with  no  better  result  ;  the  Russians  at  this  time 
were  not  particularly  skilled  in  the  arts  of  sieges.  The 
question  of  the  Hungarian  regency  and  eventual  succession 


I  So  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

still  agitated  the  Courts  of  Wien  and  Krakow,  although 
Ladislas  had  not  yet  joined  the  "  quiet  people,"  and  in 
February  15  14  an  Imperial  ambassador  appeared  at  Moskva 
for  the  purpose  of  clinching  a  treaty  between  Maximilian 
and  Vasili.  The  reciprocal  agreement  which  was  drawn  up 
between  the  two  parties  is  important  from  the  fact  that,  in 
the  German  copy,  the  word  "  Tzar  "  was  rendered  "  Kaiser  " 
— the  first  occasion  on  which  the  imperial  title  was  applied 
to  the  Russian  monarch.^  Three  month's  later  Vasili's 
lieutenants  at  Novgorod  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Hanse- 
1514  atic  League,  by  which  commercial  relations  were  restored  to 
their  old  footing.  In  June  of  the  same  year  the  importunate 
Grand  Prince  resumed  his  attack  upon  Smolensk,  and  reaped 
the  reward  of  perseverance.  The  King  of  Poland,  who  had 
made  no  effort  to  succour  the  beleaguered  city,  attributed  its 
loss  to  treachery,  and  vented  his  chagrin  on  the  governor,  a 
Bohemian  named  Solohoub,  whom  he  put  to  death.  The 
Russian  accounts  give  the  credit  of  the  victory  to  the 
Moskovite  artillery — which  ought  certainly  to  have  got  its 
range  by  that  time — and  to  the  pacific  overtures  of  the 
citizens,  headed  by  their  Bishop  Varsonof - 

The  loss  of  this  important  place  roused  Sigismund  to  a 
more  aeeressive  line  of  action  than  he  had  hitherto  taken. 
Konstantin  Ostrojhski  was  despatched  against  the  enemy 
with  a  force  of  30,000  men  ;  a  force  which,  though  numeri- 
cally far  weaker  than  that  at  the  disposal  of  Vasili,  was  better 
equipped,  better  provided  with  artillery,  and,  above  all,  better 
generalled.  In  the  latter  department  the  Moskovites  sus- 
tained a  severe  loss  by  the  defection  of  the  unstable  Glinski, 
who,  disappointed  in  his  expectation  of  obtaining  the  govern- 
ment of  Smolensk  in  return  for  services  rendered,  made 
arrangements  for  deserting  to  the  cause  of  his  former  sovereign. 
Sigismund  was  not  loth  to  receive  the  strayed  lamb  back  to 
his  fold,  but  a  misfortune,  in  the  shape  of  a  well-mounted 
band  of  the  Grand  Prince's  troops,  overtook  the  transient 
pan  before  he  had  reached  the  Polish  lines.  Vasili  rewarded 
his  treason  with  rigorous  imprisonment,  deeming,  perhaps, 
1  Karamzin.  ^  S.  Solov'ev ;  Karamzin. 


vii  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  i8i 

that  he  would  be  more  valuable  as  a  hostage  than  as  a 
corpse.  The  two  armies  now  faced  each  other  from  either 
bank  of  the  Dniepr  ;  the  Russians  were  about  80,000  strong, 
and  had,  in  addition  to  superiority  of  numbers,  the  further 
advantage  of  being  on  the  defensive.  This  advantage,  how- 
ever, was  thrown  away  by  the  inaction  of  the  Moskovite 
voevodas,  who  stood  helplessly  looking  on  while  Ostrojhski 
threw  a  bridge  across  the  river  and  safely  brought  over  his 
heavy  artillery.  On  the  8th  September  ^  at  Orsha,  on  the  1514 
left  bank  of  the  Dniepr,  was  fought  a  terrific  battle,  in  which 
the  hordes  of  Moskovy  went  down  in  hopeless  rout  before 
the  well-armed  knights  and  well-served  artillery  of  the  Polish- 
Lit'uanian  army.  Allowing  for  exaggeration,  the  losses  on 
the  side  of  the  vanquished  were  enormous.  Sigismund,  in 
the  exultant  letters  he  despatched  to  Pope,  Cardinals,  and 
the  Doge  of  Venice,  announcing  the  victory,  estimates  the 
Moskovite  slain  at  30,000,  and  particularises  a  large  number 
of  distinguished  prisoners.-  The  disaster  to  the  Moskovite 
arms  roused  the  spirit  of  the  Polish  faction  within  the  walls 
of  Smolensk.  The  time-serving  Bishop,  who  had  been 
largely  instrumental  in  the  surrender  of  the  town  to  Vasili, 
flattered  himself  that  he  might  again  dispose  of  its  destinies, 
and,  with  the  connivance  of  several  boyarins,  sent  an  invitation 
to  the  Polish  general  to  come  and  possess  himself  of  the 
place.  The  Moskovite  voevoda,  a  member  of  the  princely 
family  of  Shouyskie,  was  not,  however,  a  quaniite  negligeable 
in  the  city,  and  the  wily  ecclesiastic's  schemes  were  sharply 
checkmated.  When  Ostrojhski  came  before  the  gates  of 
Smolensk  he  might  mark  a  grisly  row  of  corpses  strung  up 
on  the  battlements,  the  centre  of  interest  for  flapping  bands 
of  crows  and  daws  ;  these  were  the  bodies  of  his  luckless 
co-operators,  who  had  been  seized  and  executed  by  order  of 
the  governor,  with  the  exception  of  Varsonof,  whose  equally 
guilty  but  more  holy  person  was  secured  in  a  prison.      The 

1  Karamzin  gives  the  date  as  8th  of  October.  The  day  is  fixed  by  Sigis- 
mund's  letter  to  Leo  X.,  written  on  iSth  September,  in  which  he  mentions  the 
battle  as  taking  place  on  ' '  die  natali  beatissime  virginis  Alarie,  que  erat  VIII. 
Septembris,''''  2  j^cta  Tomiciana,  torn.  III. 


1 82  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Polish  hetman,  thwarted  in  his  hopes  of  peaceable  possession, 
was  likewise  unsuccessful  in  an  attempt  to  carry  the  city  by 
assault,  and  the  brilliant  victory  of  Orsha  had  no  more 
substantial  result  than  the  re -occupation  of  a  few  border 
posts. 

1515  The  death  of  Mengli-Girei  and  the  accession  of  his  son 
Makhmet  to  the  Krim  khanate,  scarcely  affected  the  rela- 
tions between  Moskva  and  the  Horde,  for  the  new  Khan's 
influence  had  for  some  time  been  dominant.  Neither 
Vasili  nor  Sigismund  could  count  on  the  support  or  even  the 
neutrality  of  the  Tartar  chief,  who  took  advantage  of  the 
hostility  between  Lit'uania  and  Moskva  to  ravage  the  lands 
of  each  with  perfect  impartiality.  Another  shift  in  the 
political  balance  deprived  the  Grand  Prince  of  a  more 
exalted  though  equally  unreliable  ally  ;  a  new  family  com- 
pact had  been  patched  up  between  the  Kaiser  and  the 
Kings  of  Hungary  and  Poland,  and  Maximilian  was  now  as 
anxious  to  compose  the  quarrel  in  the  east  as  he  previously 
had  been  to  inflame  it.  The  continued  successes  of  the 
Turks  could  not  fail  to  inspire  uneasiness  in  a  prince  who 
was  scheming  to  acquire  a  preponderance  in  the  lands  of 
south-east  Europe,  and  the  Emperor  wished  to  engineer  a 
powerful  alliance,  German,  Italian,  Hungarian,  and  Polish, 
against  this  undesirable  neighbour.  The  idea  was  obviously 
unworkable  as  long  as  Moskva  hung  threateningly  on  the 
Polish  flank,  hence  the  solicitude  which  the  Habsburg  felt 
to  bring  about  a  peace  between  the  two  Slav  powers.  For 
this  end  an  Imperial  ambassador,  one  Sigismund,  Baron  von 
Herberstein,  left  Germany  at  the  end  of  i  5  1 6  on  a  mission 
of  mediation   to  the   Moskovite  Court,  where  he  arrived  in 

1517  April  the  following  year,  after  a  heroic  journey  over  in- 
numerable lakes  and  marshes  "  slippery  with  snow  and  ice," 
over  frozen  rivers,  and,  towards  the  end,  across  ice  rendered 
rotten  by  melting  snow-water  ;  much  of  the  "  way "  lying 
too  through  a  country  desolated  by  skirmishing  bands  of 
Poles  and  Russians.  The  chances  of  successful  negotia- 
tion were  not  improved  by  an  autumn  campaign  which 
Ostrojhski  carried   on,  with  disastrous  result,  in  the  district 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  1S3 

of  Pskov  ;  the  small  burg  of  Opotchka,  valiantly  defended  by 
Vasili  Saltikov,  held  out  for  fifteen  days  against  the  vigorous 
assaults  of  Polish,  Lit'uanian,  and  Bohemian  troops,  and 
was  eventually  relieved,  on  the  i8th  October,  by  two  con- 
verging Moskovite  forces  which  drove  Ostrojhski  off  the 
field.  Notwithstanding  this  side-play  the  Polish  envoys 
had  joined  Herberstein  at  Moskva,  and  were  seeking  to 
arrange  a  peaceable  understanding  between  the  Grand  Prince 
and  their  master.  Each  side  put  forward  absurdly  un- 
warranted claims — Vasili,  for  instance,  stipulated  for  the 
cession  to  Moskovy  of  Kiev  and  Polotzk,  among  other 
places,  while  the  Poles  demanded,  in  addition  to  Smolensk, 
a  half-share  of  Novgorod,  Pskov,  and  Tver.  The  real  bone 
of  contention  was  Smolensk,  and  as  neither  party  would  bate 
their  pretension  to  the  possession  of  that  city,  the  negotia- 
tions came  to  an  abortive  end  in  November. 

If  Herberstein's  efforts  for  the  termination  of  the  war 
were  not  crowned  with  success,  his  long  and  arduous  journey 
was  in  other  respects  by  no  means  barren  of  result.  It  is 
mainly  owing  to  observations  made  on  this,  and  on  a  sub- 
sequent embassy,  that  a  picture  has  been  preserved  of  the 
life  at  that  gloomy  Court,  which  was  partly  Asiatic,  partly 
Archaic  European.^  In  the  Rerum  Moscoviticarum  Covi- 
mentarii,  Maximilian's  ambassador  set  forth  to  the  western 
world  his  experiences  in  the  remote  and  desolate  region 
beginning  to  be  known  as  Muscouvie,  much  as  an  explorer 
in  a  more  travelled  age  would  retail  the  account  of  his 
wanderings  in  Central  Africa.  The  Moskva  of  Vasili 
Ivanovitch  was  a  curious  compound  of  primitive  Russian 
squalor,  Byzantine  splendour,  the  rude  hospitality  of  feudal 
Christendom,  and  the  dark  and  tortuous  restraint  of  an 
Oriental  capital.  The  state  banquets,  or  rather  the  solemn 
and  awful  occasions  when  the  Grand  Prince  invited  the 
foreign  ambassadors  to  dine  with  him   and   his  dvoryanins 

1  Much  that  appeared  eastern  or  barbarous  to  outsiders  was  in  fact  only  a 
survival  of  customs  and  costumes  that  had  long  died  out  in  the  west.  Russia, 
cut  off  by  many  causes,  already  set  forth,  from  the  march  of  progress  in 
occidental  Europe,  retained  many  things  which  had  there  been  cast  aside. 


i84  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


(courtiers),  are  good  examples  of  the  conglomerate  of 
ceremonial,  simplicity,  and  patriarchal  domesticity  which 
obtained  at  the  Moskovite  Court.  The  Grand  Prince  and 
his  brothers  with  the  highest  boyarins  sat  together  at  one 
table  ;  at  another,  opposite,  sat  the  distinguished  guests  of 
the  evening,  while  round  the  hall  were  ranged  tables  for  the 
remainder  of  the  company.  Bread  was  solemnly  served  out 
from  the  Prince's  table  to  such  as  he  wished  to  compliment, 
and  the  feast  invariably  opened  with  the  consumption  of 
brandy  and  roast  swans.  The  dishes  were  borne  in  and 
out  by  servants  sumptuously  attired,  and  in  addition  to 
brandy,  mead,  beer,  and  Greek  wines  were  served  in  goblets 
which,  like  all  the  other  appointments,  were  of  pure  gold. 
In  such  ponderous  dissipations,  in  occasional  coursing 
matches  in  his  hare  preserves  round  Moskva,  in  watch- 
ing his  foreign  gunners  exercise  their  skill  with  the  heavy 
uncouth  field-pieces  at  stated  periods,  and  of  course  in 
elaborate  religious  ceremonies,  did  the  Gosoudar  of  all 
Russia  fill  up  the  round  of  his  private  existence.  The 
coursing  seems  to  have  been  as  cautious  and  "  safe  "  as  the 
Moskovite  state-policy.  "When  the  hare  shows  herself, 
three,  four,  five,  or  more  dogs  are  slipped,  and  set  after  her 
on  all  sides  ;  and  when  she  is  taken,  there  is  loud  hallooing, 
as  if  they  had  taken  a  large  wild  beast."  "  Moreover, 
about  an  hundred  men  stood  in  long  array,  one  half  of 
whom  were  dressed  in  black,  and  the  other  in  yellow  ;  not 
far  from  them  stood  all  the  other  horsemen,  to  prevent  the 
hares  from  running  through  and  escaping."  ^ 

While  the  Imperial  negotiations  had  been  dragging  out 
their  span  of  stately  uselessness,  Vasili  had  effected  a 
diplomatic  stroke  on  his  own  account.  The  Grand  Master 
Albrecht,  despairing  of  receiving  adequate  support  from 
the  Emperor,  in  his  present  frame  of  mind,  against  the 
aggressive  policy  of  the  Polish  monarch,  turned  his  eyes 
towards  the  schismatic  heretic  who  was  playing  so  large  a 
part  in  the  affairs  of  east  Europe.  The  common  bond  of 
hostility  to  Sigismund  drew  together  the  interests  alike  of 

1  Herberstein. 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  185 

Grand   Prince  and  Grand-Master,  and  the  plenipotentiary  of 
the   latter,  Dietrich  von    Schonberg,  was  able   to    conclude  1517 
a  close  alliance  between   Moskva  and  the   Prussian  section 
of  the   Order.       Various    causes    contributed    to   delay    the 
threatened  struggle    between    Sigismund    and   the    knights  ; 
chief  of  which  was  the  restraining  influence  of  the  Kaiser, 
whose  narrow  family  policy  did  not  at  present  lend  itself  to 
a  war  between   Teuton   and   Pole  for  the  possession  of  the 
Baltic     provinces.       The    death     of    Maximilian,     however 
(January  i  5  1 9),  removed  this  obstacle,  and  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities  was  only  postponed  by  a  sudden   and   victorious 
incursion   of  the  Krim   Tartars  upon   Podolia  and  Lit'uania. 
The  respite  enabled  Albrecht  to  enlist  fresh  support  in  men, 
money,  and  material,  from   several  quarters.      Von    Pletten- 
berg  raised  on   his  behalf  a  considerable  number  of  troops 
and  a  heavy  contribution    to  the  war-chest ;    the   King   of 
Denmark,    the    Elector    of    Brandenburg,    and    the    Grand 
Prince    of   Moskva    helped    to   swell    the   resources    of   the 
venturesome  Grand- Master,  while  on   the  other  hand   Sigis- 
mund knitted  together  all  the  available  military  force  of  the 
Yagiellos    to   crush   the    insubordination    of   this    ambitious 
vassal.      In  the  last  days  of  the  year  15  19  broke  "the  long- 
threatened   wild    war-storm    over   the    Order-lands."  ^       The 
Polish  monarch  marched  against  the  presumptuous  warrior 
monks    with    an    army    "twelve    miles    wide,"    swelled    by 
Bohemian,    Moravian,    and    Silesian    contingents.       Against 
this  formidable  array  the  undaunted  Hohenzollern — worthy 
scion   of  an   illustrious   House — rode  forth  "  on  New  Year's  1520 
Day,  a  dark  stormy  winter's  day,"  with  all  the  following  he 
could    muster.      A    wild    and    devastating   war    ensued,    in 
which  whole    provinces  were  cruelly  wasted,  and    the    skill 
and  courage  of  the  Order  knights  were  pitted    in    unequal 
struggle  against  the  overwhelming  might  of  Poland.      In  the 
open  country  and  in  the  villages  and  unprotected  towns  the 
invaders    wrought    havoc    unchecked,    but    in    the    fortified 
strongholds  the  Teutons  made  desperate  resistance.      Rein- 
forcements from   Denmark  helped  the  Grand-Master  to  put 

'  Johannes  Voigt,  Geschichte  Preussens. 


1 86  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


a  better  complexion  on  the  struggle ;  the  beleaguered 
garrisons  of  Balga  and  Braunsberg  held  out  stoutly,  and  the 
Order  lanzknechts  were  able  to  break  into  Mazovia,  and 
requite  on  that  province  the  gruesome  savageries  which  had 
made  a  desert  of  the  bishopric  of  Pomesania.  At  this 
juncture  Vasili  undoubtedly  threw  away  the  opportunity  of 
his  lifetime.  Since  the  breakdown  of  the  negotiations 
with   Poland,  his  troops  had  waged  a  fitful  border  war  with 

(1518)  varying  success.  The  neighbourhood  of  Polotzk  had  been 
laid  waste,  but  an  attack  on  that  town  had  failed  ; 
Moskovite  armies  had  penetrated  as  far  as  Vilna,  and  hunted 

(1519)  the  Lit'uanian  forces  before  them.  Now,  however,  when 
Sigismund  was  experiencing  an  increased  difficulty  in  cop- 
ing with  the  opposition  of  the  Grand-master,  and  dreading 
moreover  an  attack  from  some  of  the  German  princes, 
Vasili,  instead  of  leading  an  army  into  Samogitia,  concluded 

1520  with  his  hard-pressed  adversary  a  six  months'  truce.  The 
following  year  a  "  Wafifenstillstand "  for  four  years  was 
arranged  between  the  German  Order  and  the  Poles,  while  at 
the  same  time  Moskovy  was  drawn  aside  from  the  western 
war  by  a  recurrence  of  the  troubles  with  Kazan,  which 
indeed  wore  a  serious  aspect.  The  Krimskie  Khan, 
Makhmet,  had  displaced  the  Russian  vassal  of  the  Volga 
Horde,  and  established  in  his  stead  his  own  brother,  Saip- 
Girei.  This  defiant  action  was  followed  up  by  an  invasion 
of  the  grand  principality  by  the  Krim  Khan,  who  crossed 
the  Oka  and  defeated  a  hastily  gathered  Moskovite  force 
under  kniaz  Dimitri  Bielski  and  the  Grand  Prince's  brother, 
Andrei.  The  victorious  Tartars  were  reinforced  by  the 
Kazanese,  led  by  their  new  Khan,  and  the  combined  host 
marched  upon  Moskva,  burning  and  plundering  in  wild 
unholy  triumph  which  recalled  the  fearful  days  of  the 
Mongol  mastery.  Vasili  "  the  courageous "  fled  before 
the  approaching  storm.  An  unkind  report  was  afterwards 
circulated  to  the  effect  that  he  hid  himself  under  a  hay- 
stack.^ Such  an  accusation  is  not  to  be  accepted  lightly, 
though  the  Russians  of  that  period  were  not  given  to  poking 

1  Herberstein. 


VII 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  187 


fun  at  their  sovereign.  Possibly  the  account  of  Moskovite 
panic  and  German  staunchness  which  Herberstein  sets  forth 
in  his  commentary  is  not  altogether  uncoloured  by  national 
prejudice.  One  Nikolas,  a  native  of  Spire,  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  Kreml  artillery  and  made  the  necessary 
dispositions  for  withstanding  a  siege,  but  the  crowds  of 
burgers  and  countryfolk  who  had  rushed  into  that 
sanctuary  would  have  rendered  a  protracted  defence 
impossible.  Threatened  with  an  outbreak  of  pestilence  at 
any  moment — the  time  was  midsummer  and  the  place 
Moskva — the  besieged  were  glad  to  buy  off  the  Tartars 
with  the  promise  of  tribute  from  the  Grand  Prince  to  the 
Krim  Khan  ;  a  promise  which  was  unauthorised  and  need 
not  be  adhered  to.  The  invaders  withdrew,  bearing  with 
them  captives  computed  at  the  almost  incredible  number  of 
800,000.  A  treacherous  attempt  upon  Riazan  was  foiled 
by  the  alertness  of  another  German,  "  one  Johann  Jordan, 
an  artilleryman  .  .  .  who  came  from  the  Innthal."  ^  With 
the  receding  of  the  Tartar  waters  back  came  the  affrighted 
hares  to  their  feeding-grounds  around  Moskva,  and  back 
came  Vasili  Ivanovitch  to  his  palpitating  capital,  to  deal  out 
judgment  upon  those  responsible  for  the  disaster  on  the 
Oka.  A  somewhat  delicate  matter.  The  kniaz  Bielski 
had  no  doubt  mismanaged  the  whole  affair,  but  on  the 
other  hand  the  Grand  Prince's  brother  had  been  the  first  to 
yield  to  the  homing  instinct  which  sometimes  asserts  itself 
on  the  field  of  battle.  Under  the  circumstances  the  only 
thing  to  do  was  to  fasten  the  blame  upon  one  who,  if  less 
responsible,  was  also  of  less  exalted  position,  and  a  noble 
who  had  run  a  good  second  to  Andrei  Ivanovitch  was 
accordingly  thrown  into  prison.  The  matter  of  the  hay- 
stack does  not  appear  to  have  been  gone  into. 

During    the    greater    part    of    the    following    year    the  1522 
Moskovite  army  remained  in   camp  at   Kolomna,  awaiting  a 
fresh   attack    from    the    Krimskie,    who,    however,    remained 
within  the  shelter  of  their  wide-stretching  steppes.      Negotia- 
tions were  going  on   at  the  same  time  with   Poland,  and   in 

1  Herberstein. 


i88  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

December   a    truce    of  five    years    was    effected,  which    left 
Smolensk  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Grand  Prince. 

The  strife  between  Poland  and  the  Order  now  entered 
upon  a  new  development  of  great  historical  importance. 
The  Roman  Papacy,  ever  glowering  at  the  irruption  of  the 
Faithful  (or  the  Infidel,  according  to  Christian  label),  into  the 
domains  of  Christendom,  sought  to  raise  enthusiasm  and 
money  among  the  piously  disposed  piinces  and  people  of 
the  Empire  and  neighbouring  lands,  in  order  to  float  a 
crusade  against  the  Ottomans.  Among  the  expedients  for 
obtaining  the  latter  commodity  which  met  with  the  approval 
of  Christ's  Vicegerent,  was  the  barter  of  indulgences,  con- 
ducted in  such  wholesale  manner  that  none  but  the  very 
poor,  who  could  not  afford  luxuries,  were  excluded  from  the 
attainment  of  eternal  glory.  Adversity  and  competition 
have  an  unmistakably  broadening  effect,  and  the  sixteenth- 
century  camel  went  through  the  eye  of  the  once  exclusive 
needle  with  absolute  comfort,  and  took  all  its  relations,  dead 
and  living,  with  it  if  so  minded.  The  enterprising  Pontiff, 
however,  experienced  the  bitter  perversion  of  fate  which  too 
often  mocks  the  best  directed  efforts  ;  not  only  did  the 
traffic  in  souls  fail  in  its  original  purpose  of  financing  a 
crusade,  but  its  injudicious  prosecution  among  the  cities  of 
Northern  Germany,  where  men  had  grown  somewhat  doubtful 
of  the  accumulated  truths  of  the  Church,  resulted  in  the 
springing  up  of  a  new  enemy,  more  formidable  even  than 
Islam.  Without  going  into  the  dogmatical  issues  involved 
in  the  agitation  which  sprang  out  of  the  original  "  monks' 
quarrel,"  it  is  necessary  to  note  that  the  "  Reformation  "  owed 
much  of  its  success  to  the  secularising  theories  which  it  put 
forward,  and  which  exercised  a  fascinating  influence  upon 
the  princes  and  petty  sovereigns  of  the  Empire,  The  Houses 
of  Wettin  and  Hohenzollern  especially,  lent  favourable  ear 
to  the  new  doctrines,  and  the  Grand-Master  Albrecht,  while 
roaming  Germany  in  search  of  possible  assistance  against 
his  ever  imminent  enemy,  came  in  contact  with  the  leaders 
of  the  anti-Catholic  movement,  from  whom  he  imbibed 
principles    which    he    immediately    proceeded    to    put    into 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  189 


practice.^      The  fundamental  stumbling-block  to  a  composi- 
tion with  Poland  was  the  question  of  homage  insisted  on  by 
Sieismund    as    due   from   the    Grand-Master   of  the   Order. 
Albrecht  had   made  gigantic  efforts  to  resist  this  obligation, 
and  to  preserve  the  independence  of  his  office,  but  he  now 
saw  a  way  by  which  both  his  own   ambitions  and   the  re- 
quirements of  the  King  of  Poland  might  be  accommodated. 
This  was  nothing  less  than  the  secularisation  of  the  Order- 
lands    into    a   hereditary    duchy,    dependent    on    the    Polish 
crown  ;  Albrecht,  needless  to  say,  being  the  proposed   Duke 
thereof.      The  suggestion,  which  offered  a  solution  to  what 
had    seemed    a   hopeless    quarrel,    met    with    approval   from 
Sigismund,  and    was    embodied    in    the    Peace    of    Krakow 
(April    1525),  whereby  the   Grand-Master  was  transformed 
"  from  the  head  of  a  Catholic  religious  order  into  a  Lutheran 
temporal    prince."  -       The   required    oath    of  vassalage   was 
tendered  by  Albrecht  and  in  return  the  King  presented  him 
with  a  new  blazon  for  his  new-born  duchy  of  Prussia  ;  "  the 
old  Order  changeth,"  and  the  black  cross  is   laid   aside  for  a 
black  eagle,  crowned,  beaked,  and  membered  gold.      In  days 
to  come,  what  time  the  white  eagle  of  Poland  shall  droop 
its  failing  wings  in  feebleness,  this  sable  eaglet  which   it  has 
helped   to  hatch,  grown   lusty  with   maturity,  shall   snap   its 
hungry  beak   in   unison  with  the  other  birds    of  prey  that 
hover  round  the  doomed  one.      For  the  present,  it  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  first  political  result  of  the  religious  schism 
which  was  to  plunge  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  and  especi- 
ally the  Empire,  into  a  paroxysm  of  strife,  was  the  closing  of 
a  long  and  bitter  quarrel   in   the  Baltic  lands.      As  regards 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  disappearance  of  the  Order  from 
Prussia,  Moskva  was  chiefly  concerned  in  the  isolation  which 
that  event  entailed  upon  the  Teutonic  colony  in  Livland  and 
Estland.      In  return  for  the  valuable  help  von   Plettenberg 
had   afforded   the  Grand-Master  during  the  war,  the  latter 
had   already  granted  him  complete  independence  from   the 
control  of  the   Prussian   executive  ;   hence,  when  the  secular 

1  Voigt. 
2  Freeman,  Historical  Geography  of  Europe. 


igo  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

revolution  was  effected,  the  knights  of  Livland  retained  their 
organisation  and  temporal  possessions.^ 

While  Sigismund  had  been  employed  in  bringing  East 
Prussia  under  his  domination  (West  Prussia  was  already  an 
integral  part  of  the  Polish  dominion),  Vasili  had  composed 
his  differences  with  his  Tartar  neighbours.  Makhmet-Girei 
had  diverted  his  warlike  tendencies  towards  the  subjection 
of  the  khanate  of  Astrakhan  ;  Kazan,  after  being  several 
times  overrun  and  almost  conquered  in  a  series  of  cam- 
paigns (in  which  the  Moskovite  voevodas  displayed  such 
scandalous  slackness  that  corruption  was  openly  hinted  at), 
concluded  a  truce  of  five  years  with  the  Grand  Prince,  The 
latter,  meanwhile,  had  struck  an  astute  blow  at  the  prosperity 
of  Kazan  by  prohibiting  Russian  merchants  from  attending 
the  great  summer  fair  held  annually  at  the  Tartar  city,  and 
by  establishing  a  rival  fair  at  Makar'ev,  in  the  province  of 
Nijhni-Novgorod.2  j^. 

At  a  moment  when  the  western  Church  was  offering  a 
spectacle  of  dissension  and  rampant  heresy,  Vasili  occasioned 
a  mild  scandal  in  the  Orthodox  communion  by  consecrating 
his  unfruitful  consort  to  the  service  of  heaven,  and  taking 
unto  himself  another  wife.  Twenty  years  of  conjugal  felicity 
had  not  been  crowned  with  the  desired  offspring,  and  the 
Grand  Prince,  weary  of  waiting  for  the  overdue  answer  to 
reiterated  prayers,  took  steps  to  remedy  the  breakdown  in 
the  succession.  Solomonia  was  bundled  off  to  a  convent 
near  Souzdal,  where  she  received  the  veil,  enforced,  accord- 
ing to  current  rumour,  by  a  whipping.^  Vasili  then  pro- 
1526  ceeded  to  espouse  a  second  wife,  selecting  for  that  honour 
Elena,  niece  of  the  imprisoned  Mikhail  Glinski,  This 
infraction  of  the  Church's  laws  was  connived  at  by  the 
plastic    Metropolitan    Daniel,    though    the    majority   of    the 

1  Schiemann  ;  Voigt ;    Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 

Note. — The  German  branch  of  the  Order  elected  a  new  Grand-Master  after  the 
defection  of  Albrecht,  and  continued,  at  Mergentheim  in  Franconia,  its  existence  as 
a  religious  organisation,  till  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the 
Napoleonic  maelstrom  swept  it  away  in  common  with  many  other  worn-out 
institutions. 

2  Karamzin.  ^  Herberstein. 


VII 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  191 


clergy  and   many  of  the   boyarins  viewed   the  whole  affair 
with  pious  reprobation.      Tradition  credited  the  inconsiderate 
Solomonia    with    the    crowning    offence    of    mistaking    the 
nunnery  for  a  lying-in  hospital,  and  giving  birth  to  a  male 
child  ;  the  rumour  certainly  existed,  though  it  is  doubtful 
if  it  had   any  foundation   in  fact/      Anxious  days  these  for 
the  Moskovite  Court      The  Grand  Princess  and  her  husband 
progressed  wearily  from  shrine  to  shrine,  invoking  the  good 
offices  of  various  saints  who  were  supposed  to  have  influence 
in  the   matter,  and   distributing  alms  and   donations  with  a 
lavishness  wholly  foreign   to   Moskovite  finance,  which  sug- 
gested a  conviction  that  heaven  was  open  to  bribery  and  was 
only  standing  out  for  its  price.      At  length,  after  three  years 
of  patient    expectancy,  the  much-prayed-for   infant    arrived 
"on    the    25th    August    1530,   at    seven    in    the    morning," 
accompanied    by    a   rousing    thunderstorm.-       The    city    of 
Moskva   rejoiced    with    its    sovereign    at    the    birth    of   the 
heaven-sent  child,   to  whom   was  given  the  name  of  Ivan. 
The    succession    was    further    ensured    by    the    begetting   of 
another  son  the  following  year. 

The  remainder  of  the  reign  of  Vasili  presented  no 
important  features  beyond  a  recurrence  of  inconclusive 
hostilities  with  the  Krim  Tartars,  and  occasional  diplomatic 
intercourse  with  Constantinople.  While  yet,  comparatively 
speaking,  in  the  prime  of  life,  Vasili  was  attacked  with  a 
leech-baffling  malady,  which  declared  itself  when  he  was  on 
his  way  to  the  autumn  hunting  at  Voloko  Lamsk.  For  1533 
reasons  of  state  it  was  desirable  that  the  sovereign's 
critical  condition  should  be  kept  from  the  knowledge  of  the 
general  public,  and  especially  from  the  foreign  ambassadors. 
Therefore  the  suffering  monarch  was  sledge-borne  in  a  pain- 
ful journey  to  Moskva,  at  a  season  when  the  falling  snow 
and  young  ice  rendered  travelling  laborious  and  unsafe. 
With  the  exception  of  his  brothers,  Urii  and  Andrei,  Mikhail 
Glinski — restored  to  liberty  and  princely  favour — and  a  few 
boyarins,  none  were  admitted  to  the  Grand  Prince's  presence, 
but  the  rumour  of  his  mortal  sickness  soon  spread.  The 
^  Herberstein  ;  Karamzin.  -  Karamzin. 


192  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 


dying  man  played  to  the  end  his  cold  impassive  game  of 
statecraft,  and  his  last  hours  were  employed  in  arranging 
safeguards  and  regulations  for  the  government  during  the 
minority  of  his  successor.  As  the  third  day  of  December 
drew  to  a  wintry  close  the  crowds  gathered  in  the  streets 
and  stood  round  the  silent  palace,  and  that  night  no  one 
slept  in  Moskva.  Dark-robed  ecclesiastics  emerged  from 
their  retreats  and  swarmed  into  the  house  of  death  like 
vultures  swooping  upon  a  dying  beast.  And  as  the  huddled 
crowds  watched  and  waited  without,  a  curious  scene  was 
being  enacted  in  the  grim  bed-chamber.  With  notable 
exceptions,  it  had  been  the  custom  for  Russian  Grand 
Princes  to  receive  on  their  deathbed  the  tonsure,  monastical 
habit,  and  a  new  name  ;  this  custom  the  Metropolitan 
wished  to  adhere  to  in  the  case  of  Vasili,  while  Prince 
Andrei  and  another  layman  desired  that  he  should  die,  as 
he  had  lived,  a  sovereign  and  not  a  monk.  At  midnight, 
while  prince  and  boyarin  were  endeavouring  to  snatch  the 
black  neophyte's  robe  from  the  Vladuika,  and  while  the 
latter  solemnly  and  vehemently  cursed  them  "  in  this  world 
and  the  next,"  Vasili  Ivanovitch  drew  his  last  breath.  It 
was  the  first  time  in  the  course  of  his  career  that  he  had 
shown  any  impatience.  Hastily  they  thrust  the  all- 
important  garment  on  the  corpse,  and  called  it  Varlam  ;  but 
the  baptismal  name  had  a  clear  minute's  start.  The  great 
bell  of  Moskva  boomed  out  to  the  watching  multitudes  the 
news  that  their  sovereign  was  dead.  A  new  day  dawned, 
and  another  reign  had  begun. 

During  the  reigns  of  Vasili  and  Ivan  the  Great  a  new 
factor  in  Russian  history  comes  into  notice,  and  afterwards 
develops  into  no  little  importance.  This  was  the  appear- 
ance in  two  distinct  localities,  which  may  be  roughly 
designated  as  the  lower  basins  of  the  Dniepr  and  the  Don 
respectively,  of  organised  bands  of  "  steppe-folk,"  who  were 
neither  exactly  Russian  nor  Tartar,  nomad  nor  settled,  and 
who  were  known  under  the  vague  appellation  of  Kazaks,  or 
Kozaks.  The  name  "  has  been  variously  derived  from 
words   meaning,   in    radically   distinct    languages,  an   armed 


VII  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  AUTOCRATS  193 

man,  a  sabre,  a  rover,  a  goat,  a  promontory,  a  coat,  a 
cassock,  and  a  district  in  Circassia "  ;  an  equal  uncertainty 
hangs  over  the  origin  of  the  race,  or  rather  races.  Perhaps 
the  clearest  account  of  the  etymology  and  ethnology  of 
the  Kozak  is  that  given  by  a  Russian  author  in  a  history  of 
the  peoples  of  the  Don  region.  "  Kazak  signifies  alike 
volunteer,  horseman,  freebooter.  Malo-Russians,  mingled 
with  remains  of  peoples  known  under  the  common  name  of 
Tcherni  Kloboukie,  under  the  name  of  Kazaks,  constituted 
one  people,  who  became  to  all  intents  and  purposes  Russian 
.  .  .  their  fathers  dwelling  from  the  tenth  century  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Kiev,  were  themselves  already  almost 
Russian.  Increasing  more  and  more  in  numbers,  maintain- 
ing among  themselves  the  spirit  of  independence  and 
fraternity,  the  [western]  Kazaks  organised  a  Christian 
republic,  and  established  themselves  between  the  lower 
basins  of  the  Dniepr  and  Dniestr,  building  villages  and 
fortresses."  ^  The  causes  which  drove  these  Slav  and  Turko 
outcasts  into  the  wild  steppe-land  and  scarcely  accessible 
islands  of  the  Dniepr,  and  welded  them  together  in  an 
origin-obliterating  union,  were  first  the  Mongol  invasion, 
and  secondly  the  gradual  establishment  of  irksome  and  far- 
reaching  central  authorities  both  in  Moskovy  and  Lit'uania. 
The  absolutism  of  the  one  monarchy,  and  the  Catholic 
persecution  of  the  other,  sent  men  in  search  of  liberty, 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  those  whose  fathers  had  fled  from 
the  insecurity  and  degradation  of  a  Tartar -haunted  land. 
Similar  causes — hostility  to  the  surrounding  khanates  and 
impatience  of  the  certain  taxes  and  doubtful  protection  of 
the  Moskovite  government — were  responsible  for  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Don  Kozaks,  among  whom,  however,  there  was 
a  strong  Tcherkess  (Circassian)  strain,  while  the  Russian 
element  was  proportionately  weaker.  But  the  great  factor 
in  this  double  evolution  was  undoubtedly  a  physico- 
geographical  one.  The  nature  of  the  steppes  themselves, 
those  vast-stretching,  level,  grass -grown  wolds,  spread  in 
seeming  endlessness  under  the  boundless  sky,  those  solitudes 

1  V.  Bronevskago,  Istoriya  Donskago  Voyska, 
O 


194 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 


CHAP.    VU 


where  a  man  and  his  horse  might  lose  themselves  from  all 
pursuit,  called  as  irresistibly  to  the  lustre  after  freedom  as 
ever  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  to  the  Saxon-hating  Kelts, 
or  the  Tcherni-Gora  to  the  unconquered  Slavs  of  the  Balkan 
coast.  And  having  lured,  it  held,  and  holding,  moulded. 
The  Kozak  and  his  wiry  steed  became  as  much  a  part  of 
the  fauna  of  the  great  Russian  plain  as  the  wolves,  the 
hawks,  and  the  steppe-eagles  that  hunted  and  roamed 
throughout  its  wide  expanse. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IVAN    GROZNIE 

The  lapse  of  500  years  found  the  principles  of  settled 
hereditary  government  in  much  the  same  condition  in 
Russia  as  they  had  been  when  the  infant  Sviatoslav  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne  of  Kiev  under  the  guardianship  of  his 
mother.  Despite  the  fact  that  two  of  the  late  Sovereign's 
brothers  were  yet  living,  Elena  Glinski  assumed  the  regency 
on  behalf  of  her  three-year-old  son,  supported  by  a  knot 
of  boyarin- princes,  whom  the  circumstances  of  the  time 
suddenly  threw  into  prominence.  The  over- shadowing 
figures  of  the  last  two  Moskovite  monarchs  had  almost 
obliterated  the  fact  that  there  were  persons  of  importance  in 
the  land  besides  the  members  of  the  princely  family.  Now 
a  whole  crop  of  nobles  emerges  from  the  background,  like  a 
ready-made  second  chamber  from  the  brain  of  an  Abbe 
Sieyes.  Ivan  Oblenski,  an  offshoot  of  the  House  of 
Tchernigov,  the  Bielskis,  the  Glinskis,  and  the  Shouyskies, 
form  the  aristocratic  nucleus  round  which  revolve  the 
intrigues  and  faction  vicissitudes  which  seem  the  natural 
accompaniments  of  queen-mothers  and  minorities.  Neces- 
sarily the  Princess  Regent  had  a  lover,  in  the  person  of 
Oblenski,  and  equally  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  latter  had 
personal  enemies.  Of  these  he  proceeded  to  dispose  with 
all  expediency  ;  Urii  Ivanovitch,  uncle  of  the  Grand  Prince, 
suspected  of  plotting  against  the  Existing  Order  of  Things, 
was  lodged  in  a  state  dungeon,  where  he  died  of  hunger 
some  two  and  a  half  years  later.^      A  more  celebrated,  if  less 

^  Schiemann. 


196  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

august  victim  was  the  kniaz  Mikhail  Glinski,  who  had 
expostulated  with  his  niece  anent  her  unseemly  intimacy 
with  Oblenski,  and  was  thrown   into  prison,  where  he  "  died 

1534  unhappily."  From  which  it  would  appear  that  the  old 
saying  concerning  the  unwisdom  of  intervening  between 
husband  and  wife  might  be  applied  with  equal  truth  to 
a  less  recognised  connection.  Andrei  Ivanovitch,  Vasili's 
remaining  brother,  took  fright  at  the  irreverent  procedure  of 
the  Regent  and  her  favourite  (who  caged  Princes  of  the 
Blood  as  unconcernedly  as  though  they  were  linnets  or 
human  beings),  and  stole  off  one  day,  with  all  his  household 

1537  and  retainers,  towards  Novgorod.  The  farther  he  got  from 
Moskva  the  more  his  courage  rose,  and  ere  long  he  had 
drifted  into  open  rebellion  against  the  boyarin -wielded 
authority.  Numbers  of  disaffected  landowners  sped  to  his 
support,  but  the  gates  of  Novgorod  remained  shut  and  the 
Oblenskie  were  hard  upon  his  track  with  the  best-mounted 
Moskovite  cavalry.  Andrei  surrendered  without  striking  a 
blow,  and  was  escorted  back  to  the  city  of  his  deep  dislike, 
leaving  behind  him  at  intervals  along  the  Novgorodskie  road 
the  swinging  corpses  of  thirty  of  his  adherents.  His  re- 
maining followers  died  by  torture  or  in  prisons,  and  the  latter 
fate  disposed  of  the  last  surviving  son  of  the  great  Ivan. 

Meanwhile  the  success  of  Elena's  regency  had  justified 
the  means  taken  to  retain  it.  Vasili's  death  had  encouraged 
the  King  of  Poland  to  renew  with  threatening  insistency  his 
demands  for  the  restitution  of  the  territories  conquered  by 
the  late  Prince  and  his  father  ;  refusal  on  the  part  of  Moskva 
led  to  hostilities  in  which  the  Lit'uanian  forces  were  unable 
to  obtain  any  advantages,  and  a  prolongation  of  the  truce, 
on  the  terms  "as  you  were,"  ensued  (1537).  A  skilful 
balancing  of  the  conflicting  interests  which  agitated  the  Krim 
and  Kazan  Hordes  maintained  the  Moskovite  peace  in  those 
directions,  and  a  renewal  was  also  effected  of  the  truces  with 
Sweden  and  the  Livlander  knights.  Nor  was  the  inner 
administration  of  the  regency  wanting  in  beneficial  activity. 
The  Kitai-gorod  of  Moskva  (after  the  Kreml  the  most  import- 
ant quarter  of  the  city,  containing  the  houses  of  the  boyarins 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE 


197 


and  the  principal  bazaars  and  trading  stores)  was  surrounded 
by  walls  and  towers  which  added  greatly  to  the  security  of 
the  capital.^      Vladimir,  Tver,  Novgorod,  and  other  provincial 
towns  were  newly  fortified  and   in   some  cases  rebuilt  ;  the 
state  coinage  was  also  put  upon  a  more  satisfactory  footing. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  severities  and  loose  morals  of 
Elena    Glinski    might  well  be    overlooked    by  her   subjects. 
Her  greatest  offence  was  yet  to  come.     She  died.     Of  poison,  Ap.  1538 
said  many-tongued  rumour,  on  which  the  only  rational  com- 
ment must  be  the  useful  Scotch  verdict,  "  not  proven."      Her 
untimely  death  left  Oblenski  in  precarious  possession  of  the 
supreme  authority,  which  his  enemies  were  already  preparing 
to  wrest  from  him.      Foremost  among  these  was  the  veteran 
Vasili    Shouyskie,    nick -named    "the    Silent,"    the   head    of 
an    important    Souzdalian    family.      For    seven   days    lasted 
Oblenski's    regency,  and   then    himself  and    his    sister  were 
seized  and  thrown   into  prison,  where  the  fashionable  death- 
by-starvation  awaited  them.      The  silent  Shouyskie  assumed 
the  regency,  which  he  held  till  his  decease  in  the  October  of 
the  same  year,  when  it  passed  to  his  brother,  Ivan  Shouyskie, 
who  displayed  his  newly-acquired  power  by  packing  the  Metro- 
politan Daniel  off  to  the  cloister,  and  installing  in  his  place 
loasaf,  hegumen  (abbot)    of  the  Troitza    monastery.      Hard 
and  brutal  was  the  rule  of  the  Shouyskies  ;  "  fierce  as  lions," 
bemoaned  the  Fskovskie  chronicle,  "  were  the  voevodas,  and 
as  wild  beasts  their  people  against  the  peasants."      The  only 
check  on  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  dominant  family  was 
the  ever-present  apparition  of  the  kniaz,  Ivan  Bielski — Ivan 
and  Vasili  were    fashionable   names   among   the    Moskovite 
aristocracy  of  that  period — who  was  a  formidable  competitor 
for   the    possession    of   the    regency.      Bielski    justified    the 
nervous  apprehensions  of  the  Shouyskies  (who  had  kept  him 

1  Moskva  in  the  reign  of  Ivan  IV.  consisted  of  four  principal  divisions — the 
twin  centres  of  the  Kreml  and  Kitai-gorod,  the  enclosing  crescent  of  the  Biel- 
gorod  or  White-town,  and  the  large  outer  husk  "enclosing  the  faubourgs,  gardens, 
woods,  lakes,  and  vast  unbuilt-on  spaces."  Between  the  houses  in  the  Kitai- 
gorod  and  the  east  wall  of  the  Kreml  was  the  Red  Place,  or  city  square,  which 
was  the  centre  of  Moskovite  public  life;  "red"  in  Russian  being  synonomous 
with  "  beautiful."     Afterwards  the  name  gained  a  grimmer  significance. 


198  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

in  prison  for  several  years  and  only  released  him  at  the  inter- 
cession of  the  new  Metropolitan),  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
disaffection  bred  by  their  arrogance  to  oust  them  from  the 
head  of  affairs.  As  Regent  his  rule  was  milder  and  less  over- 
bearing than  that  of  the  kniaz  he  had  supplanted,  and  a  firmer 
front  was  shown  against  the  Tartars  of  Kazan  and  the  Krim 
Horde,  who  were  continually  devastating  the  frontiers.  Pos- 
sibly the  increased  activity  was  rather  forced  by  their  side, 
for  in  the  year  1541  both  Hordes  set  themselves  in  motion 
against  Moskva.  The  Krim  Tartars  brought  a  formidable 
force  into  the  field,  augmented  by  cannon,  musketeers,  and 
some  squadrons  of  Ottoman  cavalry — the  first  warriors  of 
that  nation  who  had  fought  against  the  Russians.  The 
double  danger  stifled  for  the  moment  the  bickerings  of  the 
Shouyskie  and  Bielski  factions,  and  the  Moskovites  found 
themselves  strong  enough,  when  thus  united,  to  repel  the 
incursion  of  both  Hordes.  Safa-Girei  and  the  Kazanese  were 
chased  out  of  the  neighbourhood  of  Mourom,  which  town  they 
had  fruitlessly  attacked  ;  Saip-Girei,  confronted  by  a  powerful 
army  on  the  yonder  bank  of  the  Oka,  dared  not  attempt  to 
force  the  passage,  and  retired  to  the  Don.  The  jealousy 
which  existed  between  the  leading  boyarins  made  it  impos- 
sible for  the  Russians  to  follow  up  their  advantage  by  a 
campaign  in  Tartar  territory,  and  Ivan  Shouyskie  turned 
instead  to  his  own  advantage  the  employment  of  the  troops 
which  the  war  had  placed  at  his  disposal.  Secretly  supported 
by  many  of  the  notables  of  Moskva,  and  openly  by  those  of 
Novgorod,  he  resolved  upon  a  bold  bid  for  the  recovery  of 
1542  his  ascendency.  On  a  dark  night  in  January  Petr  Ivanovitch 
Shouyskie  rode  into  Moskva  with  a  picked  body  of  soldiers 
from  Vladimir,  and  before  morning  the  Kreml  was  in  his 
hands.  Bielski  was  seized  in  his  bed,  and  the  Metropolitan 
was  disagreeably  awakened  by  showers  of  stones  hurtling 
through  his  windows  and  weapons  hammering  against  his 
door.  The  chief  of  the  Church  barely  escaped  with  his  life 
to  the  shelter  of  the  Troitza,  an  unpleasant  exercise  for  an 
early  morning  in  mid-winter.  At  daybreak  Ivan  Shouyskie 
entered  the  city  and  resumed  his  old  position  of  authority. 


vili  IVAN  CROZNIE 


199 


Bielski  and  the  Metropolitan  were  sent  off  to  safe  keeping 
at  Bielozero,  the  lonely  stronghold  on  the  waters  of  the  lake 
of    that    name,    where    the    Grand    Princes'    treasures    and 
prisoners  were  securely  stored  away,^      This  time  Shouyskie 
took  good  care  that  his  rival  should  not  emerge  from  prison 
to  trouble  him,  and  the  soul  of  Bielski  put  on  immortality.'^ 
A   new   Metropolitan,  the  second  who  had   been   nominated 
by  the  Shouyskies,  was  elected  to  fill  the  place  of  the  shifty 
loasaf,   who   had    leisure,   in    the    seclusion    of   the    Kirillov 
monastery  at  Bielozero,  to  reflect  on  the  unwisdom  of  being 
all   things  to  all   men   in   sixteenth-century   Moskva.       The 
Novgorodskie  had  supported  the  coup  d'etat,  and  their  Arch- 
bishop Makarie  was  rewarded  with  the  vacant  post.      In  the 
meantime,  while  these  various   Ivans  were  ruling  the   State 
and  crushing  one  another  in  turn,  how  fared  it  with  the  other 
Ivan  in  the  background  1      The  much-prayed-for  princeling 
had  not,  since  the  death  of  his   mother,  spent  a  very  happy 
or   altogether   comfortable    childhood.      The    chief   boyarins 
and  their  followers  appear  to  have  treated   their  Sovereign 
with  a  curious  mixture  of  neglect,  disrespect,  and  superstitious 
awe.      Surrounded  exclusively  by  the  partisans  of  whichever 
faction    happened    to    be   uppermost,    the    friendless    orphan 
could   only  brood  in   silent  resentment  over  the  wrongs  he 
sustained  at  the  hands  of  his  temporary  masters.      The  rude- 
mannered,  tyrannical,  gold-greedy   Ivan    Shouyskie  was  an 
especial  object  of  his  dislike.      A  letter  written  by  the  mon- 
arch in    after  days    to   Prince   Andrei    Kourbski,  comments 
bitterly  on  the  fact  that  though,  in  the  lifetime  of  the  Princess 
Elena,  Shouyskie  had   possessed   only  one  cloak,  green   silk 
trimmed  with  marten  fur,  "  and  that  a  very  old  one,"  during  his 
regency  he  was  able  to  have  cups  of  gold  and  silver  fashioned 
him,  with  his  initials  graved  thereon.^      The  despotic  jealousy 
of  Shouyskie  and  of  his  supporters  in  the  State  Council  robbed 
the  young  Ivan  of  friends  as  well  as  treasure.      For  one  of 
their  number,  a  boyarin   named  Vorontzov,  the   Prince  had 
betrayed  a  marked  partiality,  a  dangerous  compliment,  which 

1  Herberstein.  2  g   Solov'ev. 

^  E.  A.  Solov'ev,  Ivan  IV.  Groznie. 


200  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

brought  down  on  the  recipient's  person  the  practically- 
expressed  dislike  of  his  fellow-councillors.  In  solemn  con- 
clave, and  in  the  presence  of  Prince  and  Metropolitan,  the 
angry  men  of  State  fell  murderously  upon  the  courtier  whom 
the  Sovereign  had  delighted  to  honour,  and  Ivan's  entreaties, 
backed  up  by  those  of  Makarie,  could  scarcely  obtain  a 
mitigation  of  his  fate  to  one  of  exile  and  imprisonment. 
The  amusements  of  the  boy  Prince,  besides  religious  devotions, 
at  which  he  was  an  adept,  and  the  more  legitimate  forms  of 
hunting,  consisted  in  chasing  dogs  and  cats  over  the  battle- 
ments of  the  Kreml,  and  in  wild  gallops  with  his  allotted 
companions  through  the  streets  of  Moskva,  in  which  the  old 
and  unwary  were  ruthlessly  trampled  underfoot.^  The  days 
of  his  repression  were,  however,  drawing  to  a  close.  The 
fearsome  Regent  Ivan  died  in  1543,  and  left  a  commission 
of  his  sons  and  relatives  to  replace  him.  But  the  reign  of 
the  Shouyskies  was  doomed.  The  manly  exercise  of  the 
chase  is  a  valuable  school  for  inculcating  self-reliance  and  a 
will  to  overcome  the  obstacles  of  life.  It  was  straight  from 
a  day's  sport  in  the  woods  of  Vincennes  that  the  grand  young 
Louis,  whip  in  hand,  strode  in  upon  the  Parliament  of  Paris 
and  quenched  it  with  an  epigram  ;  it  was  after  the  autumn 
hunting  at  Voloko-Lamsk  that  Ivan  Vasilievitch  first  showed 
his  teeth  and  gave  evidence  of  that  cold-blooded  severity 
which  was  to  gain  for  him  the  distinctive  adjective  "  Groznie  " 
(Terrible).  At  Moskva,  where  the  Court  had  assembled  for 
the  festival  of  Noel,  the  Prince  suddenly  accused  the  ruling 
boyarins  of  misgovernment  and  abuse  of  their  powers  ;  many 
had  been  guilty,  but  he  would  content  himself  with  one 
example.  Calling  to  his  kennel-men  he  bade  them  seize 
Andrei  Shouyskie  and  throw  him  to  the  dogs.  Out  into  the 
street  they  dragged  the  unhappy  man,  and  there,  before  the 
mute,  disconcerted  boyarins  and  the  long-time  Shouyskie- 
ridden  citizens,  the  Prince's  hounds  worried  the  offending 
kniaz  to  pieces  in  the  reddening  snow.  "  The  little  tin  gods  " 
had  missed  "  the  hour  when  great  Jove  wakes "  ;  Andrei 
Shouyskie  paid  dearly  for  the  oversight.  The  youth  of  Ivan 
^  Karamzin.     Schiemann.     Austen  Pember,  Ivan  the  Terrible. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  201 

still  necessitated  a  regency,  and  his  mother's  relatives,  the 
Glinskies,  next  came  into  power  ;  but  from  the  day  of  the 
red  Noel  no  liberties  were  taken  with  the  young  monarch. 
His  new  counsellors,  indeed,  encouraged  him  in  his  savage 
inclinations,  and  the  chronicles  give  instances  of  callous 
brutalities  inflicted  upon  Russian  subjects  by  both  Ivan  and 
the  Glinskies.  A  party  of  Novgorodskie  arquebusers,  who 
had  interrupted  one  of  the  Prince's  hunting  expeditions  with 
importunities  respecting  their  pay,  were  punished  for  their 
presumption  by  being  tortured  to  death,  and  a  similar  ghastly 
fate  awaited  some  petitioners  from  Pskov,  upon  whom  was 
poured  blazing  spirits,  which  ignited  their  hair,  beards,  and 
clothes.^ 

When  Ivan  was  in  his  eighteenth  year  he  celebrated 
with  much  pomp  and  circumstance  the  double  event  of 
his  coronation  and  his  marriage  with  Anastasia,  daughter 
of  Roman  Zakharin-Koshkin,  member  of  a  family  which 
had  migrated  from  Prussia  to  Moskva  in  the  fourteenth 
century.-  In  the  hallowed  Ouspienskie  Cathedral  the  Jan.  16, 
Metropolitan  crowned  him  with  the  title  of  Tzar,  which  ^547 
was  here  used  for  the  first  time  at  the  coronation  of  a 
Russian  ruler.  The  old  style  of  Velikie-kniaz  dies  out 
from  this  moment,  and  as  the  customary  chant,  "  In 
plurimos  an7ws"  swells  through  those  dim  frescoed  arches, 
the  old  order  seems  to  pass  away  with  the  wafted  incense 
fumes.  A  new  figure  is  borne  into  Russian  history  amid 
the  striking  of  bells  and  shouting  of  a  myriad  throated 
multitude.      The  Tzar  comes  ! 

The  fact  of  Ivan's  coronation  caused  no  immediate 
change  in  the  government  of  Russia,  which  continued  to 
be  directed  by  the  "  Vremenszhiki,'  or  men-of-the-season, 
that  is  to  say,  by  the  Glinskies.  That  their  administration 
was  iniquitous  to  an  insupportable  degree  may  be  gathered, 
not  only  from  the  possibly  exaggerated  accounts  of  the 
chroniclers,   but    from    the  fact   that   long-suffering    Moskva 

1   E.  A.  Solov'ev. 

^  Anastasia  Romanova,  daughter  of  Roman,  hence  the  name  by  which  the 
family  was  afterwards  distinguished — Romanov. 


202  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

was  goaded  to  the  brink  of  revolution.  Ivan  amused 
himself  with  his  religious  hobbies  and  other  less  respectable 
diversions,  and  only  assumed  the  part  of  Sovereign  when 
he  wished  to  "  make  an  example "  of  some  offending 
subject.  The  purging  of  Moskva  from  the  vampire  brood 
that  afflicted  it,  and  the  simultaneous  "  reformation "  of 
the  young  Tzar,  form  a  curious  episode  in  the  history  of 
this  time.  The  summer  of  1547  was  signalised  by 
disastrous  conflagrations  in  the  capital,  the  first  of  which 
broke  out  on  the  1 2th  April  ;  the  last  and  most  serious 
occurred  in  June.  The  flames  on  this  occasion  reduced  to 
ashes  a  large  portion  of  the  Kreml,  the  Kitai-gorod,  and  the 
outer  town,  and  destroyed  1700  of  the  adult  inhabitants, 
besides  children,  "  who  were  not  counted."  Amid  blazing 
streets  and  rolling  smoke-clouds,  falling  roofs  and  crash- 
ing cupolas,  panic  and  anarchy  reigned  supreme.  The 
populace,  rendered  unreasonable  by  terror  and  hatred, 
loudly  denounced  the  Glinskies  as  the  authors  of  the 
calamity  ;  in  particular,  Anna  Glinski,  Ivan's  maternal 
grandmother,  was  accused  of  sprinkling  the  streets  of 
Moskva  with  a  decoction  of  boiled  human  hearts,  which 
apparently  possessed  inflammable  qualities  unknown  to 
science.  Urii  Glinski,  the  Tzar's  uncle,  was  seized  by  the 
enemies  of  his  party  and  slain  in  the  sanctuary  of  a  sacred 
building,  and  the  infuriated  townsfolk  penetrated  into 
the  country  palace  at  Vorobiev,  whither  Ivan  had  retreated, 
with  a  demand  for  more  Glinskies.  At  this  moment  a 
thing  happened  which,  in  the  accounts  of  the  earlier 
Russian  historians,  recalls  Edinburgh  before  the  battle 
of  Flodden.  A  "  holy  man  of  Novgorod,"  one  Silvestr, 
appeared  on  the  scene  and  quietly  annexed  the  soul  of 
the  Tzar.  The  people  had  attributed  the  conflagrations 
to  the  Glinskies  ;  more  critical  and  dispassionate  examiners 
have  been  inclined  to  suspect  the  Shouyskie  faction  of 
complicity  in  the  matter.  Silvestr,  however,  put  a  different 
complexion  on  the  affair  and  announced  that  the  partial 
destruction  of  the  town  and  burning  of  the  1700  inhabitants 
and    unenumerated    children    was   the   work   of  God,       As 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE 


203 


he    supported    this    theory    by    producing    "  visions,"    there 

could    be  no  further  doubt  on   the  matter — none,  at  least, 

with   Ivan,   who  saw  the  visions.^      The  conscience-stricken 

young  man,  convinced  that  the  Glinski  administration  was 

as  unpopular  with  heaven   as   it  was  with  the   Moskovitchi, 

since  such  heroic   measures  had   been  taken   to  displace  it, 

surrendered    himself,     body    and    soul,    into    the    hands    of 

Silvestr,  who,   needless  to  say,  made  a  clean   sweep  of  the 

Vremenszhiki    and    replaced    them    with    his    own    friends. 

Without    ruthlessly    disturbing    the    halo    of   romance    and 

sanctity     which     has     been     fastened     upon     the    man     of 

Novgorod,  it   is    not    unreasonable    to    conjecture   that    the 

monk    was    an    old     acquaintance    of     Ivan  —  who    was    a 

frequent    visitor   to    all    the  religious    establishments   within 

his  reach — and   took  advantage  of  the  popular  excitement 

and  general   disorder  to  upset  the  palace  intrigues  of  both 

the    Glinski    and    Shouyskie    factions.      That    Silvestr,    and 

the  equally  nebulous  layman,  Adashev,  whom  he  associated 

with  him   in   the    new  government,  exercised    a  restraining 

and   beneficent    influence    on    the    young    Prince    may   well 

be  believed  ;  with   an  opposition  of  watchful   and   resentful 

nobles    in    the    background,    circumspection    was    essential, 

and     Ivan,    who    had    seen     a    consuming    fire,    an    angry 

populace,  and  a    frowning  Providence    threatening   him    on 

all  sides,  was  likely  to  be  a  docile  pupil.     For  the  time.    The 

austere  and   monkish  repression  of  the  latest  Vremenszhiki 

was  the  finishing  touch  necessary  to  perfect  the  education 

of  the  Terrible  Tzar. 

The  early  part  of  Ivan's  reign,  and  the  whole  of  the 
preceding  one,  are  characterised  by  the  recurrence  at 
irregular  periods  of  a  deliberate  campaign  against  Kazan. 
The  Russians  seem  to  have  borrowed  the  tactics  of  the 
wolves  which  inhabited  their  steppes  and  forests,  and  to 
have  leisurely  and  persistently  wearied  their  quarry  down, 
without  caring  to  rush  in  and  dispatch  it.  Again  and 
again  did  the  Tzar  summon  from  the  far  corners  of  his 
dominions    an    enormous   army,    trail     forth    his    ponderous 

^  Karamzin. 


204  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

siege-pieces  and  sacred  banners,  take  an  affecting  farewell 
of  his  capital,  and  march  upon  the  Tartar  city.  The 
wooden  walls  were  relentlessly  battered  down,  the  garrison 
reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  and  then  the  Moskovite  hosts 
would  return  home  in  good  order.  The  walls  were  easily 
rebuilt  and  the  Kazanese  would  pursue  the  even  tenor 
of  their  way.  It  would  almost  appear  as  though  the 
Russians  were  loth  to  irrevocably  destroy  the  only  enemy 
against  whom  they  warred  with  any  comfort.  A  more 
feasible  explanation  is  that  the  Kazanese  supplemented 
their  feeble  defences  by  a  judicious  outlay  of  the  metal 
which  corrupts,  and  that  some  of  the  Moskovite  voevodas 
did  not  return  empty-handed  from  these  abortive  expedi- 
tions. In  1552  Ivan  determined  to  set  once  more  in 
motion  the  huge  army  which  had  been  left  quartered  on 
the  frontiers  of  Kazan,  a  locality  which  had  had  a  de- 
moralising effect  on  the  troops,  many  of  whom  had  shaved 
off  their  beards  to  please  the  Tartar  maidens  who  for  the 
time  being  under-studied  their  wives,  "  to  prove,"  remarked 
a  scandalised  messenger  from  the  Metropolitan,  "  by  the 
indecent  nudity  of  your  faces,  that  you  have  shame  to  be 
men."  Familiarity  had  bred  contempt,  and  the  dwellers 
in  the  city  by  the  Volga's  shore  scornfully  refused  to 
open  their  gates  at  the  approach  of  the  150,000  footmen 
and  the  150  cannon  which  the  Tzar  brought  against  them. 
The  Moskovites  prepared  for  a  long  and  obstinate  resist- 
ance, and  by  way  of  a  beginning  erected  and  dedicated 
three  pavilion  churches  in  their  camp.  Events  justified 
their  expectations  ;  the  Kazanese  held  out  stoutly  against 
both  the  assaults  of  the  besiegers  and  the  offers  of  the 
Tzar.  August  and  September  passed  in  continual  sorties  and 
battles  without  the  walls,  skirmishing  attacks  by  the  Kozaks 
in  the  tzarskie  army,  and  mining  operations  by  the  German 
engineers.  The  overwhelming  forces  and  superior  artillery 
which  Ivan  was  able  to  bring  against  the  city  at  length 
beat  down  the  heroic  defence,  and  the  triumphant  Mosko- 
vites put  their  stubborn  and  still  resisting  enemies  to  the 
sword.      The    Tzar   is    said   to   have    been    moved    to    tears 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE 


205 


at    the   sight   of    so    many    Tartar    corpses  ;   "  they    are    not 
Christians,"    he    obser\'ed,   "  but    yet    they   are    men."      The 
reduction   of   Kazan   was    an   event  of  the   first  importance 
in    Russian    annals.      It    marked    an    epoch.      "The    victory 
of    Ivan    the    Terrible    is    the    first    great    revenge    of   the 
vanquished  over  the  vanquishers  .  .  .  the  first  stage  reached 
by    European    civilisation    in    taking   the    offensive    towards 
Asia."  ^      Prudence  suggested    that   Ivan   should   remain    on 
the    scene    of   his    conquest    until    his    authority   over    the 
neighbouring  districts  was    assured  ;   a  desire    to    return    to 
his  capital   in   the  full    flush   of  triumph   prompted    him   to 
disregard    more    solid    considerations.      He    was    still    very 
young.       The    newly-acquired    territory    was    therefore    left 
under  the  united   protection  of  the   Christ,  the  Virgin,  the 
Russian    intercessory     saints,     and     Aleksandr     Shouyskie. 
Ivan,  on   his  homeward   way,  received   the  welcome  intelli- 
gence that  his  wife  had  given  birth  to  a  son,  the  Tzarevitch 
Dimitri,   first  of  a   series   of  Ivanovitches  so  named.      The 
prolonged    rejoicings,  banquetings,  and   thanksgivings  which 
ensued  at  Moskva  were  followed  by  a  disagreeable  sequel  ; 
Kazan,  despite   the  august  protection   under  which   it   had 
been   left,  rose  in   revolt,   and   the   Russian   ascendency  was 
seriously  imperilled.      The  Tzar's  health  at  the  same  time  1553 
broke  alarmingly  down,  and   another  long  minority  seemed 
to  threaten  the  State.     The  boyarins  and  princes,  summoned 
to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  infant   Dimitri,  showed 
a  strong  reluctance  to  bind  themselves  down  in  the  manner 
required  ;    the    succession    of  Ivan's    child    to    the    Tzardom 
would   mean   a    Romanov  regency  and   a   repetition   of  the 
faction    intrigues    which    had    attended    the    early    years    of 
the  present  reign.      Urii.  the  Tzar's  brother,  appears  to  have 
been    a  weakling    in    mind    and   body,    too    feeble    even    to 
decorate  with  the  divine  attributes  of  monarch  ;  in  Vladimir 
Andreievitch,  the  Tzar's  first  cousin,  however,  there  existed 
a  possible  candidate   for  the  throne,  and   even    Silvestr  and 
Adashev  hesitated  between  the  claims  of  the  hereditan,-  and 
collateral    succession.      The   oath,   whatever  its  value   might 

^  Rambaud. 


2o6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

be,  was  exacted  from  the  unwilling  courtiers,  but  Ivan's 
recovery  prevented  the  necessity  of  testing  it.  The  con- 
valescent Tzar,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  his  advisers, 
set  off  on  a  course  of  shrine  visiting,  taking  with  him  his 
unfortunate  offspring,  who  was  scarcely  of  an  age  to  stand 
such  energetic  piety.  In  fact  he  died  on  the  journey.  The 
pilgrimage  of  Ivan  was,  if  the  chroniclers  and  some  of  the 
later  historians  are  to  be  believed,  disastrous  in  another 
fashion.  Among  the  religious  establishments  visited  was 
the  Piesnoshkie  monastery,  wherein  was  caged  an  interest- 
ing prisoner.  Vassian,  Bishop  of  Kolumna  in  the  reign  of 
Vasili,  had  been  deprived  of  his  episcopal  office  during  the 
time  of  the  regencies  on  account  of  his  evil  life  ;  now,  in  the 
decrepitude  of  age,  he  is  represented  as  harbouring  with 
unquenched  passion  the  unholy  frettings  of  a  sin-warped 
mind.  Ivan  desired  an  interview  with  the  hoary  reprobate  ; 
perhaps  after  a  course  of  devotions  among  a  community  of 
irreproachable  saints,  living  and  departed,  he  was  attracted 
by  the  rare  personality  of  a  sometime  bishop  who  was  no 
better  than  he  should  be.  The  monk -with -a- past  seized 
the  grand  opportunity  to  poison  the  monarch's  mind 
against  his  boyarins,  his  relations,  and  his  subjects,  and 
Ivan  drank  in  with  greedy  ears  the  vicious  counsels  of  the 
unhallowed  recluse.  It  is  a  fascinating  picture,  the  aged 
priest  who  had  eaten  his  heart  out  in  helpless  bitterness 
these  many  years,  and  chafed  against  the  restraint  of  his 
prison-cell,  given  at  last  one  deadly  moment  of  revenge  in 
which  to  work  a  superb  evil  against  the  society  that  had 
mishandled  him.  And  as  the  Tzar  went  out  from  his 
presence  a  changed  man,  might  not  the  ex-prelate  have 
flung  a  crowning  blasphemy  at  his  heaven  and  chanted 
exultingly  tmnc  dimittis  ?  Ivan,  indeed,  in  the  hands  of 
the  chroniclers,  is  a  creature  easily  swayed  ;  a  monk  from 
Novgorod  tells  him  to  be  good,  and  he  straightway  abandons 
the  wrong-headed  sins  of  his  wayward  youth  and  becomes 
an  exemplary  monarch,  till  a  monk  of  Piesnoshkie  gives 
him  dark  and  evil  counsel,  and  sends  him  forth  upon  the 
world  with  a  cankered,  blood-lusting  soul. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  207 


The  Tzar's  return  to  health  was  accompanied  by  a  return 
of  Moskovite  prosperity.  Another  Tzarevitch,  Ivan,  replaced 
the  dead  Dimitri  ;  Kazan  was  gradually  Kozaked  into  sub- 
mission, and  received  a  bishop  as  a  mark  of  special  favour. 
Another  conquest  equally  important  was  achieved  without 
bloodshed.  The  Astrakhanese  having  insulted  the  envoys 
of  Moskovy,  a  small  but  well-equipped  army  was  sent  against 
them,  with  the  result  that  this  khanate,  once  the  head-country 
of  the  redoubtable  Golden  Horde,  acknowledged  Ivan's 
sovereignty  and  yielded  equal  rights  in  the  Volga  fishery  to 
his  Great  Russian  subjects.  The  Nogai  Tartars,  occupying  1554 
the  intermediate  steppes,  submitted  at  the  same  time  to  the 
Moskovite  dominion,  and  the  Russian  state,  still  cut  off  from 
the  Black  Sea,  to  which  in  the  tenth  century  it  had  given  its 
name,^  wriggled  its  way  down  to  the  Kaspian. 

The  acquisition  of  the  two  Tartar   sovereignties,  while 
giving  increased  importance  and  security  to  Ivan's  dominions, 
and    opening    up   a    valuable    trade    with    Persia    and    other 
eastern  countries,  did  not  tend  to  make  Moskovy  less  Asiatic, 
or  bring  her  closer  into  the   European   family.      The  Tzar's 
political  ambitions  turned  naturally  towards  the  west.      With 
a  sagacity  equal  to  that  of  his  most  celebrated  successor,  and 
in  opposition  to  the  advice  of  his  counsellors,  he  wished  to 
find  a  free  outlet  for  communication  with  the  great  Empire- 
Republic  (which,  though  decaying    in    organisation,  was  at 
this  moment  so  instinct  with  life),  and  with  Europe  generally. 
The  death  of  Sigismund  of  Poland  (1548)  and  the  accession 
of   his    son,    Sigismund -August,    had    scarcely    affected    the 
grudgingly  pacific  relations  between  the  two  countries,  though 
their  common  grievance  against  the  Krim  Tartars  seemed  to 
warrant  the  hope  of  a  more  cordial   understanding.      With 
Sweden  the  Moskovites  waged  one  of  those  short  inconclusive 
wars,  in  which  neither  party  seemed   to   have  any  definite 
object  in  view,  beyond  the  fact  that  they  "  lived  unhappily  " 
as  neighbours.      A  forty  years'  truce  concluded  the  hostilities  1557 
between  these  ancient  enemies.      It  was  about  this  time  that 

1  In  Byzantine  writings  of  that  period  it  is  sometimes  styled   "  Sea  of  the 
Russians." 


2o8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

some  adventurous  merchant-seamen  of  the  city  of  London 
"  discovered  "  Moskovy,  by  way  of  the  White  Sea,  and  opened 
up  a  commercial  and  diplomatic  intercourse  between  the  two 
isolated  nations  who  were  one  day  to  come  face  to  face  with 
each  other  on  the  roof  of  the  world.  The  country,  however, 
towards  which  Ivan's  thoughts  were  chiefly  turned  was  the 
uniquely  governed  Baltic  land,  comprising  Estland,  Livland, 
and  Kourland,  and  the  adjacent  islands  of  Dago  and  Oesel. 
The  extinction  of  the  Prussian  section  of  the  Order  had 
necessarily  weakened  the  Livlandish  branch,  and  the  spread 
of  Lutheran  ideas  had  further  added  to  the  confusion  which 
reigned  throughout  the  Baltic  burghs.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  in 
Europe  did  bishops  wield  such  extensive  temporal  powers, 
and  the  fact  that  local  opinion  ran  strongly  in  the  direction 
of  the  reformed  principles  and  of  secularisation  made  the 
immediate  future  of  these  districts  a  very  open  question. 
Ivan  had  a  solution  of  the  difficulty  which  he  was  not  loth 
to  put  into  practice.  A  grievance  he  undoubtedly  had 
against  the  Livlanders,  who  had  hindered  his  intercourse 
with  the  Hansa  League  and  prevented  free  immigration  of 
artificers  and  craftsmen  from  the  Empire  into  Russia.  Con- 
sequently he  suddenly  bethought  him  of  the  clause  in  the 
original  truce  with  von  Plettenberg,  whereby  an  annual 
tribute  from  the  town  of  Dorpat  had  been  agreed  to,  and 
promptly  lost  sight  of.  The  Tzar  reminded  the  Livlandish 
envoys  of  this  unremembered   pledge,  and  refused  to  renew 

1557  the  truce  until  the  arrears  had  been  paid  in  full.  The  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Land-Master  and  the  sovereign  bishops 
argued  and  promised,  but  they  did  not  pay,  and  Ivan 
prepared  for  war.  Von  Furstenberg  vainly  endeavoured  to 
rouse  his  subordinates  and  coadjutors  to  a  sense  of  the 
coming  danger.  The  Bishop  of  Dorpat  hastily  declined  the 
offer  of  a  few  companies  of  lanzknechts,  whose  loosely  dis- 
ciplined habits  he  well   remembered  ;  he  had  forgotten   the 

1558  Russians.  In  January  three  divisions  of  Moskovite,  Tartar, 
and  Tcherkess  troops,  under  the  command  of  a  Glinski,  a 
Romanov,  and  an  erstwhile  Khan  of  Kazan,  rode  into  the 
Order  territory  and  wasted   Livland   and   Estland  to  within 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  209 


four  miles  of  Revel/  The  outskirts  of  Dorpat  were  burnt, 
and  the  invaders  returned  from  this  preliminary  winter 
campaign  with  a  heavy  spoil  of  cannons,  church  bells, 
treasure,  and  captives.  A  contemporary  account  accuses 
the  Tartars  of  fiendish  cruelties  upon  the  hapless  inhabitants 
who  fell  into  their  clutches  ;  among  other  fantastically 
devised  tortures,  men  were  fastened  on  to  the  ground,  holes 
punctured  into  their  sides,  and  gunpowder  poured  therein, 
which  being  ignited,  sent  the  victims  into  shreds.-  Ivan's 
object  in  sending  war  and  desolation  careering  through  the 
land  was  to  bring  the  various  factors  which  composed  its 
government  into  subjection  to  his  authority,  as  the  Prussian 
State  had  been  brought  under  the  sovereignty  of  Poland. 
The  Livlanders  still  imagined  that  peace  might  be  bought, 
and  at  a  Landtag  held  at  Wolmar  in  March  it  was  resolved 
to  send  envoys  to  the  Tzar  with  an  offer  of  60,000  thalers. 
Ivan  refused  to  receive  the  ambassadors,  and  the  chances  of 
reconciliation  were  still  further  lessened  by  an  outbreak  of 
hostilities  between  the  opposing  fortresses  of  Narva  and 
Ivangorod,  the  former  of  which  was  captured  by  the  Russians. 
The  war  recommenced  with  renewed  vigour  on  the  part  of 
the  invaders  ;  the  defending  forces  were  too  hopelessly  dis- 
organised to  offer  an  effective  resistance  to  the  Moskovite 
attack.  Churchmen  and  Ordermen,  nobles  and  burghers, 
blamed  each  other  mutually,  and  the  luckless  peasantry 
(who  since  their  conversion  to  Christianity  by  the  Sword 
Brethren  had  scarcely  been  surfeited  with  the  peace  and 
goodwill  which  had  been  officially  promised  them)  suffered 
at  the  hands  of  all.  Dorpat,  Neuhausen,  Ringen,  and  many 
other  strongholds  fell  before  the  assaults  of  the  Moskovites, 
and  Ivan's  troops  extended  their  ravages  into  Kourland. 
But  meanwhile  significant  events  had  been  taking  place  at 
the  headquarters  of  the  Order.  Von  Fiirstenberg  had  re- 
signed his  office  to  a  younger  man,  Gotthard  Kettler,  and 
this  new  chief  had  inaugurated  vigorous  measures  whereby 
to  save,  if  possible,  some  fragment  from  the  ruin  of  the 
rapidly  dissolving  anachronism  which  had  held   together  for 

1  Schiemann,  ^  Quoted  by  Schiemann. 

P 


210  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

over  300  years.  The  Kings  of  Poland,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark were  appealed  to  for  assistance,  and  a  more  spirited 
opposition  was  shown  to  the  Tzar's  voevodas.  A  half-hearted 
irruption  of  the  Krim  Khan,  Devlet  Girei,  into  Moskovite 
territory  towards  the  close  of  the  year  did  not  materially 
weaken  Ivan's  grip  upon  the  struggling  provinces,  but  in  the 
following  May,  through  the  mediation  of  the  new  King  of 
1559  Denmark  (Frederick  II.),  an  armistice  of  six  months  was 
granted  to  the  distressed  Livlanders.  Kettler,  the  Archbishop 
of  Riga  (Wilhelm  Hohenzollern),  and  the  various  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Order,  the  cathedral  lands,  and  the  cities 
sought  to  turn  this  respite  to  good  account.  Like  vultures 
swooping  down  from  an  empty  sky,  the  agents  of  the  neigh- 
bouring northern  powers  appeared  suddenly  on  the  scene 
now  that  they  understood  that  the  Baltic  Bund  really  meant 
dying.  The  Empire,  torn  and  exhausted  by  the  religious 
warfare  which  had  attended  the  progress  of  the  Reformation, 
was  unable  to  take  effective  part  in  the  obsequies  of  its 
detached  colony.  Other  interested  waiters  upon  Providence, 
however,  there  were  in  plenty.  ?/Iagnus  of  Holstein,  brother 
of  the  King  of  Denmark,  was  elected  successor  to  Johann 
Munchausen,  Bishop  of  Oesel  and  Wiek,  who  was  willing, 
for  a  substantial  recompense,  to  evacuate  a  bishopric  which 
had  become  neither  Catholic  nor  safe.  Revel  and  the  Est- 
landish  barons  turned  their  eyes  Swedenward,  while  in 
September  an  alliance  was  formed  between  Poland  and  the 
expiring  Order,  which  showed  in  which  direction  Kourland 
and  Livland  were  likely  to  fall.  The  truce  came  abruptly 
to  an  end  in  the  midst  of  all  these  schemings,  and  the  Order 
knights  fought  their  last  campaign  amid  depressing  circum- 
stances. The  strongly  fortified  town  of  Fellin,  in  which 
ex -Master  von  Fiirstenberg  had  entrenched  himself,  was 
captured — or  bought — by  the  Moskovite  voevoda  Kourbski, 
and  another  disaster  overtook  the  Cross  warriors  at  Ermes, 
where  a  whole  detachment  was  surrounded  by  an  over- 
powering force  of  the  enemy  and  all  who  were  not  slain 
taken  as  prisoners  to  Moskva.  The  Tzar  who  had  wept 
over  the  dead  Kazanese  did  not  on  this  occasion  permit  his 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE 


211 


triumph  to  soften  his  feelings  towards  the  wretched  captives, 
who  were  flogged  through  the  streets  of  the  capital  with 
whips  of  wire  and  then  beheaded/  Hatred  and  fear  of  the 
Tartar-tinged  and  autocratic  Moskovite  sovereignty,  heightened 
by  acts  such  as  this,  drove  the  Baltic  folk  more  speedily  into 
the  arms  of  the  various  foreign  powers  who  were  able  and 
willing  to  absorb  them.  Oesel  had  already  come  under 
Danish  influence;  in  June  1561  Erik  XIV.  of  Sweden 
(who  had  succeeded  Gustavus  Vasa  the  preceding  September) 
took  Estland  formally  under  his  protection.  Sigismund- 
August  completed  the  partition  by  taking  over  from  the 
Order  Kourland  and  as  much  of  Livland  as  was  not  in  the  Mar.  1562 
hands  of  the  Russians.  The  former  province  was  erected 
into  a  hereditary  duchy  dependent  on  the  Polish  crown,  and 
bestowed  upon  the  ci-devant  Master,  Gotthard  Kettler,  who 
was  transformed  into  Duke  of  Kourland  ;  the  ecclesiastical 
lands  of  the  Kourlandish  bishopric  of  Pilten,  however,  "  went 
with "  the  territory  of  Oesel,  which  also  comprised  the 
church-lands  of  Wiek  in  Estland.  Riga  remained  for  the 
present  a  free  city,  depending  more  or  less  upon  Poland, 
and  the  archbishopric  was  extinguished  on  the  death  of  its 
last  prelate,  Wilhelm  Hohenzollern,  in  1563.-  Thus  passed 
away  in  violent  dissolution  the  strange  anomalous  time- 
honoured  Baltic  Bund,  that  missionary  outpost  of  western 
Christianity  and  civilisation,  which  had  crammed  its  com- 
merce and  its  Christ  swordwise  down  the  throats  of  the  Liv 
tribes,  had  led  an  existence  of  intermittent  strife  with  its 
neighbours  and  within  itself,  and  dying,  left  a  legacy  of  two 
hundred  years'  warfare  behind  it. 

Ivan,  in  killing  the  Order,  had  not  reaped  unmixed 
benefits  from  his  destructive  efforts  ;  he  had  advanced  the 
Russian  frontier  in  a  direction  in  which  expansion  was  most 
needed,  but  he  had  seen  a  large  accession  of  territory  fall 
to  his  hereditary  enemy,  Poland,  and  his  other  hereditary 
enemy,  Sweden,  had  obtained  a  foothold  south  of  the  Finnish 
gulf — two  circumstances  which  did   not  bode  peace  on   his 

^  Schiemann, 
2  Schiemann  ;  S.  Solov'ev ;    Geschichte  der  Ostseeprovinzen. 


212  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

north-west  frontier.  At  Moskva  meanwhile  troubles  were 
brewing.  The  Tzar  had  probably  never  forgotten  or  forgiven 
the  part  Adashev  and  Silvestr  had  played  when  their 
sovereign  seemed  little  better  than  a  dead  dog,  and  his 
consort  had  since  that  affair  nourished  open  enmity  against 
the  two  advisers.  Their  opposition  to  the  war  with  Livland, 
in  place  of  which  they  would  have  preferred  a  crusade  against 
the  Krim  khanate,  still  further  nettled  Ivan,  and  the 
Vremenszhiki  might  plainly  perceive  that  their  "  season," 
which  had  set  in  amid  the  glowing  ashes  of  a  burnt  Moskva, 
was  drawing  to  a  close  in  the  winter  of  the  Tzar's  displeasure,  -m 

(Aug.  The  death  of   Anastasia  (who  had  erewhile  presented    her  fl 

^^  °  husband  with  another  son,  Thedor,  and  a  daughter,  Eudokiya)  " 

did  not  improve  the  monarch's  temper,  and  the  fallen 
favourites  were  glad  to  leave  the  unhealthy  neighbourhood 
of  the  Court  Adashev  was  sent  in  the  capacity  of  voevoda 
to  the  newly  acquired  fortress  of  Fellin,  and  the  man  of 
Novgorod  relapsed  into  the  obscurity  of  the  cloister.  Their 
rule  had  been  ambitious,  austere,  and  paternal  to  the  point 
of  irritation,  and  they  left  behind  them  a  circle  of  disparaging 
courtiers  who  helped  the  Tzar  to  remember  how  arrogant  his 
disgraced  counsellors  had  been  in  the  past,  and  to  realise 
how  dangerous  they  might  be  in  the  future.  It  was  darkly 
hinted  at  the  Kreml  that  Anastasia  Romanov  had  died  in  the 
prime  of  life  and  health,  and  that  she  had  been  the  enemy 
of  the  Vremenszhiki.  Ivan  himself  raked  up  real  or  imagined 
grievances  against  these  restrainers  of  his  violent  youth,  and 
before  long  the  frown  of  the  Tzar  was  followed  by  a  stroke 
of  his  far-reaching  arm,  Adashev  was  removed  to  a  prison 
at  Dorpat,  where  he  died  six  months  later — by  his  own  hand, 
said  his  enemies  ;  Silvestr  was  sent  to  contemplate  the 
abstract  to  the  music  of  "  the  ice-fields  which  grind  against 
the  Solovetsky  Monastery  on  its  savage  islet "  in  the  White 
Sea — a  favourite  storing-place  for  inconvenient  churchmen, 
as  Bielozero  was  for  lay  offenders. 

A  new  circle  of  favourites  and  boon  companions  sprang 
fungus-like  around  the  stern-grown  Tzar,  but  for  the  future 
they    ceased   to   try  and   control   his  goings  ;    if  they  could 


1 


vm  IVAN  GROZNIE  213 

avoid  being  trampled  on  they  counted  themselves  lucky.  The 
Basmanovs — Thedor,  the  son,  "  with  the  face  of  an  angel 
and  the  heart  of  a  devil  " — were  among  this  sinister  throng, 
which  also  included  Maluta  Skouratov,  "  readiest  of  all  to 
minister  to  his  depraved  inclinations  and  shameful  lusts."  ^ 
Ivan,  after  the  punishment  of  Silvestr  and  Adashev,  was 
seized  with  remorse — for  wasted  opportunities.  He  might 
have  been  so  much  more  savagely  exemplary  than  he  had 
been.  It  was  not  yet  too  !ate  to  remedy  the  omission  ; 
Adashev  had  been  disposed  of,  and  the  recluse  could  not 
well  be  dragged  forth  again  and  re-sentenced  ;  but  there 
were  others.  The  gravest  political  fault  that  must  be  laid 
to  Ivan's  account  is  that  his  cruelties  were  occasionally  stupid. 
In  the  instance  of  his  first  experiment  at  a  reign  of  terror  he 
selected  as  principal  victim  of  his  unappeased  wrath  Daniel 
Adashev,  brother  certainly  of  the  late  minister,  but  one  of  the 
few  reliable  voevodas  with  the  army  in  Livland.  The  exact 
ground  on  which  he  received  the  death-sentence — beyond  the 
fundamental  one  of  blood-relationship  with  a  fallen  idol — 
does  not  transpire,  but  the  fault  was  apparently  a  com- 
prehensive one,  as  with  him  perished  his  youthful  son,  his 
wife's  father,  his  brother's  wife's  brothers,  and  his  relative 
Ivan  Shiskin,  with  wife  and  child."  At  the  same  time  was 
put  to  death,  on  the  double  charge  of  sorcery  and  affection 
towards  the  Adashevs,  a  woman  of  Livland,  a  convert  to 
Orthodoxy,  who  had  come  to  Moskva  with  her  family,  the 
interesting  name  of  Magdalin,  and  a  reputation  for  piety. 
The  first  perished  with  her.  Other  victims  of  the  Tzar's 
dislike  or  distrust  were  sent  either  to  their  graves  or  to 
Bielozero,  and  then  the  "  young  man's  fancy  "  lightly  turned 
to  "  thoughts  of  love."  Envoys  were  sent  to  the  King  of 
Poland  suggesting  the  marriage  of  Ivan  with  one  of 
Sigismund-August's  sisters  as  a  basis  of  peace  between  the 
two  countries,  but  the  negotiations  fell  through.  The  question 
of  Livland  had  added  another  item  to  the  many  vexed  points 
which  made  a  durable  reconciliation  impossible.     The  offended 

1  E.  A.  Solov"ev,  Ivan  IV.  Groz)jie. 
-  N.  A.  Pole%-oi,  Tzarstz'ffvanie  loanna  Groziia^o. 


214  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Aug.  1561  wooer  haughtily  turned  his  back  upon  possible  western  brides 
and  allied  himself  with  a  beautiful  Tcherkess  maiden,  of  a 
princely  house,  whom  he  caused  to  be  Christianised  and 
baptized  at  Moskva  under  the  name  of  Mariya.  Towards 
the  close  of  the  following  year  Ivan  assembled  an  immense 
army  with  which  to  give  practical  effect  to  his  resentment 
against  Poland,  and  in  January  1563  led  his  troops  in  person 
against  Polotzk.  Probably  no  previous  Russian  prince  or 
voevoda  had  ever  been  at  the  head  of  so  imposing  a  host ; 
its  fighting  strength  was  computed  at  280,000  men,  another 
80,000  accompanied  the  huge  baggage  train,  and  200  cannon 
bumped  in  their  sledges  over  the  frozen  snow.  How  such  a 
multitude  of  men  and  horses  was  maintained  in  the  frost- 
bound  and  much  ravaged  border  province  of  Polotzk  it  is 
difficult  to  surmise.  Fortunately  the  siege  was  not  of  long 
duration  ;  the  old  capital  of  the  House  of  Isiaslav  surrendered 
to  the  mighty  host  which  encompassed  it,  and  Ivan  was 
able  to  add  the  title  of  Grand  Prince  of  Polotzk  to  his  already 
fatiguingly  imposing  designations.  His  return  journey  to 
Moskva  was  a  repetition  of  his  earlier  triumph  after  the 
fall  of  Kazan.  As  on  that  occasion,  he  was  met  with  the 
pleasing  intelligence  that  his  consort  had  presented  him  with 
a  son  (Vasili).^  The  infant  continued  the  parallel  by  dying 
when  a  few  weeks  old.  Another  death  happened  in  the  tzarskie 
family  towards  the  end  of  the  year,  Urii,  the  weakling  brother, 
dropping  quietly  out  of  existence  at  this  time.  Makarie, 
the  Shouyskie-elevated  Metropolitan,  died  on  the  last  day  of 
the  year,  "  leaving  behind  him  the  blessed  memory  of  a 
prudent  pastor." '"  As  he  had  lived  in  peace  with  the  various 
Vremenszhiki  and  with  Ivan  himself,  the  prudence  cannot 
1564  be  gainsaid.  Athanasie,  the  Tzar's  confessor,  was  elected  to 
the  vacant  post,  which  he  probably  found  less  onerous  than 
that  of  keeper  of  his  Majesty's  conscience. 

A  truce  of  six  months  had  been  accorded  to  Sigismund- 
August,  notwithstanding  which  both   Moskovites  and  Poles 

1  According  to  Pember  "christened  Dmitri,  like  his  first-boni."     Karamzin 
and  Polevoi  designate  him  Vasili. 

2  A.  N.  Murav'ev,  History  of  I  he  Russian  Church. 


VIII 


IVAN  GROZNIE  215 


(the     latter    with    the    assistance    of    the    Dniepr    Kozaks) 
mutually  harried  each  other's  lands.      The  Polish  ambassadors 
who   came   to   Moskva  in   December    1563  put   forward  the 
usual    inflated    demands    for    Pskov,  Novgorod,    and    other 
integral  Russian  possessions  ;  scarcely  likely  to  be  yielded  to 
a  country  which  had  just  lost  a  valuable  province.      Ivan's 
diplomatists  countered  these  extravagant  proposals  by  equally 
unreasonable  claims,  and  the  futile  negotiations — which  more 
resembled   a  Dutch  auction — were    broken   off   in  January. 
The  renewal  of  active  hostilities  brought  disaster  upon  the 
Moskovite  arms  ;    in  the  ill-fated   neighbourhood  of  Orsha  1564 
Petr  Ivanovitch   Shouyskie,  in  command  of  a  large  Russian 
force,  was  surprised    by  the  hetman   Nikolai    Radzivil   and 
completely  defeated.      Among  the  many  conflicting  accounts 
of  this    battle    it    is    impossible    to    estimate  what  was    the 
proportionate  loss  of  victors  and  vanquished,  but  it  is  fairly 
evident   that   the   Moskovites   abandoned   their   cannon   and 
baggage  train    to    the   enemy,  that    they   were    pursued    by 
moonlight  through  brakes  and   swamps,  and  that  Shouyskie 
lost  his  life  in  the  battle  or  the  flight.      According  to  some 
writers  his  body  was  found   in   a  well.      The  consequences 
of   this    defeat   were    not    weighty,   but    Ivan    was    at    the 
same  time  confronted  with  the  defection  of  one  of  his  most 
important     voevodas,    Aleksandr     Mikhailovitch     Kourbski. 
This  boyarin,  who  held  command  of  the  troops  in  Livland, 
had  been  a  companion-in-arms  of  Daniel   Adashev,  and  was 
well  disposed  towards  the  Vremenszhiki  who  had  had  so  grim 
a    downfall.      As    Moskovite   generals   went,   he    had    been 
energetic  and  fairly  successful,  though  at  a  battle  at  Nevl  he 
had  been  worsted    by  a  much  inferior    Polish  force.      The 
cruelty  and  tyranny  which  were  making  the  Tzar  daily  more 
breathlessly  interesting  to  his  courtiers  roused  apprehensions 
in  the  mind  of  Kourbski,  who  suddenly  took  the  resolution 
to   transfer   his   services   to  the  cause  of  Sigismund-August. 
The  letter  or  declaration  in  which  he  informed  the  Tzar  of 
the   reasons   which   had   driven   him   to   take   this   step  was 
couched   in  terms   of  Biblical   reproach,  and    upbraided  the 
tyrant  with  having  shed  the  blood  of  innocent  men  and  slain 


2i6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


the  mighty  ones  of  Israel.      Kourbski  was  pleased  with  this 
composition  and  expressed  his  intention  of  having  a  copy  of 
it  buried  with  him.      Ivan,  who  was  not  so  pleased  with  it, 
drove  his  iron-tipped  staff  through  the  foot  of  the  messenger 
who  had  brought  it,  and  kept  it  there  while  he  read  it  ;  and 
it    was    a    long    letter.      An    extraordinary    correspondence 
ensued  ;    Ivan    hurled   at   his   departed   boyarin  reproaches, 
scriptural  texts,  sarcasms,  and  fragments  of  classical  history. 
Why  to  save  his  miserable  body  had   Kourbski  stained   his 
immortal  soul  with  treachery  ?      What,  he  wished  to  know, 
would    happen    to    Kourbski's    soul  "on  the    day   of   awful 
judgment "  ?      How  had  he  dared  to  say  that  the  throne  of 
God    was    surrounded   by  his  (Ivan's)    victims,    against   the 
authority  of  the  Apostle,  who  said  that  no  man  could  see  God  ? 
Heretic  !      "  You  tell  me  that   I  shall  never  again  see  your 
Ethiopian    face.      O    Heaven !    what    misfortune    for   me ! " 
And   let  him  place  his  letter  in   his  coffin,  thereby  proving 
that  he  was  no   Christian,  since   Christians  loved  to  die   in 
forgiveness    and    not    hate.       "Written   in  our   residence   of 
Moskva,  in   Great  Russia,  the    5th  of  the  month  of  July,  the 
year  of  the  world  7,072."  ^ 

The  passing  over  of  Kourbski  infused  new  vigour  into 
Sigismund-August's  war  measures.  Devlet-Girei,  who  had 
been  on  the  point  of  concluding  an  alliance  with  Moskva, 
was  suddenly  induced  by  Polish  gold  to  make  an  inroad 
upon  Riazan  ;  Kourbski  and  Radzivil  led  a  large  army 
against  Polotzk,  and  hostilities  were  actively  prosecuted  in 
Livland.  Nothing,  however,  resulted  from  this  triple  attack  ; 
Riazan  was  heroically  defended  by  the  Basmanovs,  father 
and  son,  until  reinforcements  arrived  to  drive  the  Tartars 
back  into  the  steppes.  Polotzk  equally  defied  the  Polish 
arms,  and  the  Moskovites  on  their  part  captured  the 
Lit'uanian  fortress  of  Ozeriszh.  In  Livland  neither  side 
could  claim  a  decided  advantage. 

Had  Ivan  at  this  crucial  moment  gathered  together  the 
formidable  resources  at  his  command  and  led  his  army  against 
his  old   hereditary  enemy,  enfeebled  by  the  rule  of  a  weak 

1  Skazaniya  kniazya  Kourbskago,  edit,  by  N.  Ustryalov  ;  Karamzin. 


vni  IVAN  GROZNIE  217 

and   aristocracy-fettered   king,   and   involved,  moreover,  in   a 
quarrel   with   Sweden,  he   might   have   achieved  a  conquest 
more   splendid    and    important    than    those    of    Kazan    and 
Polotzk,  and  have  wreaked  on   foreign   foes  his  consuming 
lust  for  blood.      But  suspicion,  the   Nemesis  of  tyrants,  had 
already  commenced   to  haunt  the  dark  mind  of  the  Tzar, 
and  he  cared   not  to  risk   his  sacred  person   in   the  hands 
of  possibly  traitorous   boyarins.      His    warped    imagination 
peopled    Moskva    with    treason -mongers    and    conspirators, 
secret     adherents     of     Kourbski     and     of     the     disgraced 
Vremenszhiki.       Promiscuous    arrests    and   judicial    murders 
had    not    increased    the    gaiety    of   the    capital,    and    Ivan 
glowered    round    upon    gloomy   and    anxious    faces    with    a 
sense   of  injured    and    threatened    majesty.       One    morning 
in    December    boyarins  and   citizens  saw  with    a  feeling  of 
uneasy   alarm   the   Kreml   square  crowded    with  sledges,   in 
which  were  piled  crosses,  ikons,  church  and  domestic  furniture. 
State  treasures,  and  the  various  paraphernalia  necessary  to  a 
peregrinating  Tzar.      The  Terrible  was  about  to  desert  his 
capital  on  the  eve  of  the   festivities  of  Noel.      Escorted   by 
a   troop   of  horsemen,  and    accompanied    by  his    family  and 
favourite  courtiers,  Ivan  Vasilievitch   Groznie  swept  out  of 
Moskva  before  the  eyes  of  his  silent  and  wondering  subjects. 
This    portentous     Hegira    halted     at    the    Aleksandrovskie 
sloboda,    a    village    some    107   verstas  (86   miles)   from  the 
capital,    where    the    Tzar    set    up    his    Court    afresh.      The 
unknown  is  proverbially  the  dreaded.      All  Moskva  shivered 
at  this  mysterious  departure.      Clergy,  boyarins,  and  towns- 
folk   asked    themselves    what   boded    the    winter    flittiner   of 
their  sovereign  ;  they  had  not  long  to  wait  for  an  explana-  1565 
tion.      On    the    3rd    January  came   a  New  Year's   message 
from  Aleksandrov  to  the   Metropolitan,  and  another  to  the 
merchants    and    people   of    Moskva.      The    burden    of  both 
these   epistles   was,   that  during   Ivan's   minority  and   under 
the  administration   of    Silvestr    and   Adashev    the    interests 
of  the   State  had   been   neglected  and  its  coffers  plundered  ; 
that  Moskva  still  swarmed  with  a  brood   of  disaffected   and 
rebellious   boyarins,    and    that    whenever   the    long-suffering 


2i8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


sovereign    wished    to    mete    out  justice   to   the   guilty,    the 
MetropoHtan    and    clergy   interfered    to   screen    them    from 
their  well-deserved  doom.      Hence  the  sorrowing  Tzar  had 
resolved  to  shake  the  dust  of  an  ungrateful   capital  off  his 
feet,  or  in   other  words,  to  leave  the  white-built  but  black- 
hearted  city  to  simmer  in  its  own  iniquities.      The  effect  of 
this  announcement  was  general   panic  and  consternation,  as 
Ivan  had  probably  intended   it  should  be ;  a  deputation  of 
clergy,  boyarins,  merchants,  and  townsfolk,  headed  by  Pimen, 
Archbishop    of    Novgorod,    waited    upon    the    Tzar   in    his 
retreat  at  Aleksandrov  and   humbly  implored  him  to  return 
to  his   desolate   capital   and   to  deal  with   the   evil-doers  as 
seemed  best  to  him.      Ivan  graciously  relented  and   made  a 
solemn  entry  into  the  city  on  the   2nd    February.      If  the 
chronicles  are  to  be  credited,  the  change  of  air  and  scene 
had    done    him    little    good    as    far   as    bodily   health    was 
concerned,   and    the    people    were   appalled    to    behold    the 
ravages  which   two   months'    absence    had    wrought   on    the 
person  of  their  sovereign,   who  now  appeared  before  them 
"  a  gaunt,  bent  man,  with  dull  eyes,   matted,  unkempt  hair, 
and    a    gloomy    fierceness    stamped    upon    every    feature."  ^ 
Certainly  this  Tzar  gave  his   subjects  plenty  of  excitement. 
As  a  conqueror  he  had   retaken   possession   of  Moskva,  and 
a    new    batch    of    regulations    marked    his    return    to    the 
head  of  affairs  ;   most  notable  of  these  enactments  was  the 
institution  of  a  personal  body-guard,  chosen   from  the  ranks 
of  the  courtier  boyarins,  and  originally  fixed  at  lOOO  strong 
(afterwards  raised  to  6000),  to  whom  was  given  the  name  of 
Opritchnina,  or  select  legion.      These  satellites  and  creatures 
of  the  Tzar  fulfilled  the  duties  of  guards,  police,  and  special 
messengers,  and  became  the  agents  for  such  cruelties  and 
extortions  as  Ivan  could   not  superintend   in  person.      They 
carried  at  their  saddle-bow  a  broom   and   a  dog's  head,  to 
signify  that  they  swept  treason  out  of  the  land  and  devoured 
the    Tzar's    enemies  ;    the   terror  they   inspired    among   the 
unfortunate  people  upon  whom  they  were  let  loose  earned 
for    them    the    name    of    "  Kromieshniki,"    "of    the    outer 

I  Pember. 


viii  IVAN  GROZNIE  219 


darkness,"    or    literally   "outers."      Another    new    departure 
was   the   commencement   of  a   palace  outside   the   walls  of 
the  Kreml  ;  an  unaccountable  whim,  unless   Ivan   feared   to 
be   shut   up   like   a    rat    in    a   trap  among    a   people  whose 
patience  might  one  day  give  out,  and  who   might  hunt  for 
a  Vasilievitch  as  on  a  memorable  occasion  they  had  hunted 
for  Glinskies.      For  the  present  the  Moskvitchi  were  huddled 
like   sheep   in    the   corner  of  a   pen,  watching  with   nervous 
interest   the    movements    of   the    personage    who    might    be 
said  to  embrace  the  double  part  of  shepherd   and  wolf.      No 
time   was    lost   in    getting   to   business  ;    in    the    month    of 
February  a    batch   of  victims    was    selected    to    inaugurate 
the  new  days  of  personal   rule  —  a  dark  festival,  in  sombre, 
gloomy,  and  terrible  setting,  and  not  as  yet  common  enough 
to    have   lost   the    thrill    of  expectancy.      A    list   of    names 
stalk  spectre-wise  across  this  ugly  page  of  Moskva's  history, 
as   the   bearers   of  them   walked   to   their   doom   under  the 
gaze  of  a  blood-frozen  multitude.      Aleksandr  Gorbati,  who 
at  least  had   fought  for  the  Tzar  "  from  Kazan  to  the  field 
of  Arske,"  and  his  son   Petr,  who  at  the   age  of  seventeen 
could   not  have  been   steeped  very  deeply  in  treason,  died 
together  under  the  executioner's  axe.      Four  other  enemies 
of   the    Tzar's    repose    suffered    by  the   block  ;    for    a   fifth 
was  reserved    a  more  ghastly  punishment.      Kniaz   Dimitri 
Shaferov   expiated   his   real   or   imputed   crimes    by  a  slow 
death    by    impalement.       All    day    long,    it    was    said,    he 
lingered,  bearing  his  pain  heroically  ;  and  Church  and  Tzar 
looked   on   impassively  at   a   deed    more   meanly  cruel   than 
that    monk  -  taught    tragedy,   the    memory    of   which    they 
bewailed  every  Good  Friday.      To  the  credit  of  the  Metro- 
politan,  be   it  said,  that  having  not  the  courage  to  thwart 
his    sovereign's   sacrificial    bent,   he   retired    from    an    office 
whose    merciful    functions    he   might    no    longer  wield,    and 
withdrew   into  the    Novo    Spasskie   monastery.      Germanus, 
Archbishop  of  Kazan,  was  pitched   upon  to  fill  the  vacant 
post,  but  Ivan  quarrelled  with  him   before  the  ceremony  of 
consecration    had    time    to    take    place,    and    the    old    man 
escaped  thankfully  back   to  his  former  diocese.      The  Tzar 


220  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

then  nominated  Filipp,  hegumen  of  the  Solovetski  Lavra, 
who  unwillingly  assumed  an  office  which  could  not  fail  to 
bring  him  into  disastrous  contact  with  the  Terrible  and 
his  unbearable  Opritchniki. 

Ivan  divided  his  time  between  the  capital  and  the 
Aleksandrovskie  sloboda,  which  latter  place  he  transformed 
into  a  peculiar  hybrid  settlement,  half  fortress,  half  monastery, 
in  which  he  led  an  equally  peculiar  life.  A  whim  or  a 
superstitious  fancy  caused  him  to  garb  himself  and  his  boon 
companions  with  the  titles  and  even  the  robes  of  monks, 
but  the  religious  routine  of  this  strange  establishment  was 
no  make-believe.  Matins  and  masses  and  vigils  were  here 
observed,  perhaps  more  regularly  than  in  most  Russian 
monasteries  of  that  day,  and  by  none  more  punctiliously 
than  by  the  Tzar-abbot  ;  a  fearful  and  wonderful  being,  if 
contemporary  reports  have  not  grossly  lied,  grovelling  in 
abject  fervent  worship  before  the  chapel  altar  at  one 
moment,  and  gliding  out  to  superintend  the  fiendish  torture 
of  some  wretched  captive  at  another,  returning  "  radiant " 
and  comforted  —  grotesque  and  scarcely  credible,  yet 
supported  by  the  facts  that  are  available.  While  the 
baboon -hearted  sovereign  passed  his  days  in  a  blended 
medley  of  piety  and  savagery,  buffoonery  and  State  affairs, 
his  familiar  sprites,  the  Six  Thousand,  infested  Moskva 
and  a  large  portion  of  the  country  districts  like  a  devouring 
pest  or  an  army  of  occupation.  Princes,  boyarins,  burghers, 
all  who  were  not  connected  with  the  Elect  Legion,  were 
liable  at  any  moment  to  be  insulted,  plundered,  or  mal- 
treated by  the  light-hearted  and  light-fingered  Opritchniki, 
and  redress  from  the  Tzar  there  was  none.  Houses  and 
lands  were  ruthlessly  filched  from  unoffending  subjects  in 
order  to  provide  for  the  wants  and  luxuries  of  the  favoured 
legionaries.^ 

The  new  Metropolitan,  a  man  of  firmer  fibre  than 
his  immediate  predecessors,  inevitably  clashed  against  the 
drifting  forces  of  oppression  and  State  anarchy  which  bore 
athwart  him,  and  incurred  the  disfavour  alike  of  Tzar  and 

'   Schiemann,  Karamzin,  E.  A.  Solov'ev,  Polevoi. 


vni  IVAN  GROZNIE  221 

Opritchniki.  Previous  to  his  consecration  he  had  made  a 
half-hearted  attempt  to  procure  the  suppression  of  the 
latter,  and  in  return  they  hated  him  with  a  thoroughness 
which  boded  his  ultimate  destruction.  Throughout  his 
ministrations  in  the  gloomy  and  splendid  temples  of  Moskva 
the  grinning  dog's  head  must  have  been  ever  before  his  eyes, 
and  the  renewed  cruelties  and  executions  with  which  the  Tzar 
terrorised  the  capital  made  a  rupture  daily  more  imminent. 

During  these  inward  developments  of  Ivan's  reign  a 
curious  languor  had  crept  into  the  foreign  relations  of  the 
country.  It  seemed  as  if  the  three  north-eastern  powers 
were  gorged  and  torpid  after  having  assimilated  within  their 
maws  the  decayed  carcase  of  the  Baltic  Bund.  The  Swedish 
raven  and  the  Slav  eagles  sat  inertly  blinking  at  each  other, 
or  indulged  in  desultory  sparring  over  the  remains  of  their 
banquet.  Perennial  embassades,  solemnly  and  sumptuously 
upholstered,  trailed  to  and  fro  between  Moskva  and  the 
Lit'uanian  capital,  and  concurrently  Kozaks  and  razboyniks 
(moss-troopers)  kept  alive  the  smouldering  embers  of  war. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  neither  of  the  three  neighbour  nations 
was  in  a  position  to  engage  in  a  vigorous  foreign  campaign. 
In  Sweden  Erik,  second  monarch  of  the  House  of  Vasa,  was 
undoing  the  good  work  of  his  father  and  sowing  the  whirl- 
wind which  was  shortly  to  sweep  him  from  his  throne.  In 
Poland  the  line  of  Yagiello  seemed  likely  to  come  to  an 
end  with  the  childless  Sigismund-August,  and  men  looked 
anxiously  or  selfishly  forward  to  the  prospective  troubles  of 
an  open  succession  ;  for  the  most  part  selfishly.  In  Russia 
Ivan,  who  might  have  reaped  splendid  profit  from  the 
embarrassments  of  his  rivals,  seemed  bent  rather  on  warring 
upon  his  own  subjects.  His  hatred  of  the  boyarins  may 
legitimately  be  explained  by  the  recollections  of  his  dreary 
and  friendless  youth,  and  of  the  torturing  anxiety  of  his 
sick-bed,  when  loyalty  ran  cold  and  men  turned  their  backs 
upon  the  seemingly  setting  sun.  And  yet  the  prime  mover 
in  that  incipient  treason  appeared  for  long  to  have  escaped 
the  jealous  fury  that  bore  so  strong  a  sway  in  the  Tzar's 
breast.      Vladimir  Andreivitch,  who  had  put  himself  forward 


222  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

as  his  cousin's  under-study,  was  for  many  years  the  object 
of  caresses  rather  than  openly  shown  resentment.  Fiefs, 
palaces,  commands,  and  other  compliments  were  showered 
upon  him,  as  though  to  remove  the  possibility  of  further 
disaffection.  But  there  are  more  ways  of  killing  a  cat  than 
by  choking  it  with  cream.  Ivan  one  day  summoned  his 
relative  to  visit  him  at  Aleksandrovskie,  and  rode  forth  to 
meet  him  with  a  band  of  ever-useful  Opritchniki — and  some 
1569  poison.  Vladimir,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  two  children, 
was  intercepted  at  a  little  village  on  the  road,  where  all  four 
were  forced  to  drink  of  the  Tzar's  hospitality — a  beverage 
which  needed  no  digestion. 

Whatever  object  Ivan  may  have  had  in  selecting  a  man 
of  Filipp's  disposition  for  the  office  of  Metropolitan,  he  soon 
laboured  to  displace  him  therefrom  ;  "  there  is  no  law  to  say 
such  things  as  may  disgust  the  ear  of  kings,"  and  Filipp 
had  been,  for  a  Russian  churchman,  tolerably  outspoken. 
(1568)  The  uncompromising  Vladuika  was  arrested,  arraigned  on  some 
raked-up  charge  relating  to  his  monastic  life,  deposed  from  his 
office,  and  immured  in  a  cell  of  the  Otrotch  monastery  near 
Tver.  Here  in  the  following  year  Maluta  Skouratov  helped 
him  to  die  ;  Ivan  has  the  credit  of  having  added  a  martyr  to 
the  Orthodox  calendar.  Kirill,  hegumen  of  the  Novinski 
monastery  (Moskva)  replaced  Filipp  in  the  Russian  primacy. 
Despite  the  passive  and  unresisting  temper  with  which 
the  Moskovites  seem  to  have  endured  the  tyranny  of  their 
sovereign  and  his  satellites,  Ivan  was  never  free  from  appre- 
hension on  the  score  of  treason.  The  carefully -guarded 
seclusion  of  his  life  both  at  Aleksandrov  and  at  the 
capital  betray  his  nervous  fears  in  this  respect,  and  even 
more  unmistakable  is  the  drift  of  the  correspondence  he 
had  with  Elizabeth  of  England  on  the  subject  of  a  possible 
asylum  in  that  country.  In  the  last  years  of  Edward  VI. 
the  English  navigator  Richard  Chancellor,  of  "  the  Mystery 
Companie  and  Fellowship  of  Merchant  Adventurers  for  the 
Discoverie  of  unknown  lands,"  had  stumbled  upon  Moskovy 
while  searching  for  a  northern  passage  to  India  and  China, 
and  diplomatic  and  commercial  relations  had  been  opened 


VI 11  IVAN  GROZNIE 


223 


up  between  the  two  countries.  The  Queen  responded 
graciously  to  "  the  deare  most  mightie  and  puissant  Prince, 
our  brother,  great  lord  Emperor  and  greate  Duke  Ivan 
Easily  of  all  Russia,"  promising  a  sanctuary  for  "  the  free 
and  quiet  leeding  of  your  highnes  lief  .  .  .  and  that  it  maie 
be  laufull  for  you  to  use  your  christian  relligion  in  such 
sorte,  as  it  shall  be  best  like  you."  Besides,  the  letter  went 
on,  a  place  should  be  appointed  for  the  prospective  fugitive 
and  his  Court  "  as  long  as  you  shall  like  to  remaine  with 
us,"  adding,  however,  "upon  your  owen  charge."  The  Tudors 
were  not  given  to  quixotic  extravagance. 

Russia  it  has  well  been  said  is  the  country  of  contrasts, 
and  the  reign  of  Ivan  furnishes  some  curious  anomalies  of 
administration.  Of  all  the  strange  fruit  to  be  borne  under 
the  circumstances  of  time  and  place — in  the  Moskovy  of  the 
sixteenth  century — a  States-General  was  about  the  last  to  be 
looked  for.  And  yet  this  was  indeed  the  apparition  which 
the  violent  control-impatient  Tzar  called  up  to  advise  him 
on  the  purely  administrative  question  of  continuation  or 
termination  of  the  Polish  war.  In  the  summer  of  1566 
came  to  Moskva  an  unwonted  assemblage  of  boyarins,  higher 
clergy,  small  proprietors,  merchants,  and  townsfolk,  339  in 
all,  to  deliberate  on  the  matter  which  had  been  submitted 
to  their  decision.  Sigismund- August  had  abandoned  his 
demands  for  the  restitution  of  Smolensk  and  Polotzk,  and 
was  willing  to  unite  with  Ivan  in  a  scheme  for  driving  the 
Swedes  out  of  Estland  and  partitioning  that  province  and 
Livland  amicably  between  the  two  Slav  powers.  The  East- 
Russian  monarch  did  not  jump  at  these  favourable  proposals, 
but  insisted  that  Riga,  Wenden,  Wolmar,  Ronneburg,  and 
Kokenhausen  should  be  added  to  his  share  of  Livland. 
Possibly  his  object  was  to  harass  Lit'uania  by  a  prolongation 
of  the  war,  in  the  hope  that,  on  the  death  of  Sigismund- 
August,  the  electors  of  the  grand  duchy  might  be  driven  to 
put  a  term  to  their  country's  sufferings  by  bestowing  their 
suffrages  on  their  most  formidable  neighbour  ;  as  the  Poles 
had  done  in  the  case  of  Yagiello.  The  King  refused  to 
make  the  required   concessions,   hence   the    deadlock   which 


224  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


»    the    Russian    Diet    was    called    together    to    discuss.       The 
assembly    unanimously    concurred    in   refusing  to  abate  the 
Tzar's    demands    upon    Livland,    which   appeared    to    them 
extremely  reasonable.      Thus    the    old    Slavonic    custom    of 
violently  disposing  of  a  minority  was  not  called  into  requisi- 
tion ;    had   the  unanimity  been   the  wrong  way   Ivan  would 
probably  not  have  shrunk  from   a  heroic  treatment  of  the 
case.      Whatever   hopes   the  Tzar  may  have  entertained  of 
detaching  Lit'uania  from  the  Polish  crown  were  dispelled  by 
the  political  stroke  which  Sigismund-August  effected  a  few 
years  later  ;   by  the   Union   of  Lublin,  signed,  after  many  a 
stormy  sitting,  on  the    ist  July  1569,  Poland  and  Lit'uania 
were   definitely    bound    together    in    a   dual    but    indivisible 
realm.      The  question  of  the  succession  to  the  double  throne 
still    remained    open,    but    it    was   scarcely    likely   that    the 
turbulent    and    almost    independent    nobles    of   the    Polish 
provinces  would  turn  their  thoughts  towards  the  grim  despot 
of  Moskva,  charm  he  never  so  wisely.      Ivan,  however,  in 
obstinately  refusing  to  conclude  peace  on  any  but  the  most 
exorbitant  terms,  and   confining  his   military  operations   for 
the  most  part  to  unimportant  border  skirmishes,  was  pursuing 
the  time-honoured  Moskovite  wolf-borrowed  policy  of  wearing 
down    an    adversary   by    persistent    untiring    attack.      Even 
more  hoary  and  respectable  with  the  sanction  of  age,  dating 
indeed    from    the    days    of    Sviatoslav    Igorovitch,   was    the 
happy-go-lucky     neglect     of     the     southern     and     eastern 
possessions  of  the  gosoudarstvo,  which  were  generally  left 
with  no  better  protection  than  those  with  which  nature  had 
surrounded  them.      South  of  Moskva  nothing  matters,  might 
have    expressed    the    indifference   with    which    the    Russian 
statecraft  permitted  its  outlying  districts  in  this  direction  to 
1569  be  continually  overrun  by  marauding  armies.      In  the  year 
of  the   Lublinskie  Union  a  Turko- Tartar  invasion,  having 
for   its  nucleus    17,000    troops  under  the   command    of  an 
Ottoman  pasha,  entered   the  steppe-lands  of  the  Azov  basin 
to  prosecute  what  might  be  considered  a  holy  war  against 
the  Infidel  conquerors  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.      With  the 
idea  of  bringing  the  Mussulman  lands  watered  by  the  Volga 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  zz^ 

into  closer  touch  with  Azov,  and  thereby  with  the  water-way 
to  Constantinople,  the  Turkish  plan  of  campaign  included 
the  gigantic  project  of  uniting  that  river  with  the  Don  by 
means  of  a  canal.  Neither  this  undertaking  nor  the  medi- 
tated swoop  upon  Astrakhan  was  seriously  prosecuted,  and 
the  invaders  seem  to  have  gathered  alarm  from  the  awful 
stillness  of  the  solitudes  into  which  they  had  penetrated,  and 
to  have  seen  Moskovite  armies  stealing  upon  them  where 
only  the  foxes  and  the  steppe-eagles  sought  their  prey  amid 
the  waving  grasses.  The  Tartar  auxiliaries  gradually 
dispersed  and  the  famine -wasted  troops  of  the  Sultan 
re-embarked  at  Azov  without  having  encountered  human 
enemies  other  than  the  skirmishing  bands  of  Tcherkess 
warriors  who  had  harassed  their  retreat. 

Permanently  at  war  with  Poland,  never  safe  from  the 
hostility  of  the  Krim  Tartars,  and  threatened  with  the 
aggression  of  the  great  Mohametan  power  of  South -East 
Europe,  Ivan  seemed  to  find  among  his  own  subjects  enemies 
more  punishable  than  any  who  menaced  him  from  without. 
Moskva  and  Aleksandrov  had  been  the  scene  of  many  a 
nightmare  deed  of  cruelty  ;  many  an  action  of  injustice  and 
oppression  had  been  perpetrated  by  the  fiend-hearted  Oprit- 
chniki  in  the  country  districts  ;  but  now  something  on  a 
larger  scale  was  to  be  attempted.  The  "episode  of  Novgorod," 
one  of  the  most  terrible  events  of  a  terrible  reign,  is  intro- 
duced by  some  of  the  earlier  historians  in  a  somewhat 
fantastic  manner.  One  Petr,  a  native  of  Volhynia,  who  had 
suffered  for  some  offence  at  the  hands  of  the  Novgorodskie 
authorities,  revenged  himself  by  calumniating  the  city  rulers 
in  the  too  susceptible  mind  of  the  Tzar  ;  his  story  was  that 
a  letter,  addressed  to  Sigismund-August,  and  signed  by  the 
Archbishop  (Pimen)  and  the  leading  inhabitants  of  the  city, 
offering  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to  the  Polish  monarch, 
had  been  hidden  behind  the  image  of  the  Mother-of-God  in 
the  Sofia  Cathedral  at  Novgorod,  where  it  was  eventually 
found  by  a  confidential  agent  dispatched  by  Ivan  from 
Moskva.^      Why  a  letter  intended  for  the  King  of  Poland, 

^  Karamzin,  S.  Solov'ev. 

Q 


226  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


and  presumedly  of  some  urgency,  should  have  been  placed, 
and  left,  in  such  a  curious  position,  is  not  very  apparent. 
That  such  treason  was  actually  meditated  is  at  least  possible. 
Novgorod,  clinging  to  the  memory  of  lost  liberties  and 
departed  glories,  may  not  unnaturally  have  turned  wistful 
eyes  towards  any  protector  who  might  save  her  from  a 
dynasty  which,  in  the  person  of  Ivan  III.,  had  wrought  her 
such  lasting  injury,  and  in  the  person  of  his  grandson 
threatened  her  with  further  oppressions.  The  morbidly 
suspicious  mind  of  the  Tzar  would  not  be  without  apprehen- 
sion on  this  score,  and  in  this  case  there  is  no  reason  to 
presuppose  that  evidence,  real  or  concocted,  was  an  essential 
preliminary  to  preventitive  action.  In  the  autumn  of  1569 
the  incriminating  letter  is  said  to  have  been  found.  In 
December  the  Tzar,  with  the  Tzarevitch  Ivan,  his  favourite 
boyarins,  and  an  army  of  Opritchniki,  set  out  on  a  punitive 
expedition  against  Novgorod  and  the  neighbouring  towns. 
Like  a  python  encoiling  its  prey  this  strange  peregrinating 
"  bed  of  justice  "  moved  towards  the  devoted  city,  leaving  an 
ugly  streak  of  blood  and  desolation  in  its  track,  Klin,  a 
small  township  near  Tver,  was  the  starting-point  of  the  red 
carnival.  What  exact  offence  the  inhabitants  had  committed 
in  the  eyes  of  their  sovereign  it  is  impossible  to  say,  since 
they  could  scarcely  have  been  suspected  of  complicity  in  the 
alleged  treasonable  correspondence  with  Sigismund-August. 
The  Tzar,  however,  let  slip  his  "  peculiars "  on  them,  and 
murder  and  pillage  became  the  order  of  the  day.  "  Houses 
and  streets  were  filled  with  corpses,  and  neither  women  nor 
children  were  spared."  ^  Hence  onward,  at  Tver,  Torjhok, 
Gorodnya,  and  in  all  the  villages  as  far  as  lake  Ilmen,  the 
same  scenes  of  blood  and  rapine  were  enacted  ;  the  roads 
leading  to  Novgorod  were  strewn  with  dead  bodies.""^  It  was 
during  this  grisly  progress  through  the  dark  snow-swathed 
pine-forests,  where  the  ravens  watched  over  the  frozen  corpses, 
and  the  wolves  feasted  on  what  the  Kromiesniki  left  behind 
them,  that  Maluta  Skouratov  turned  aside  to  the  Otrotch 
monastery  and  transacted  his  business  with  the  ex-Metro- 
1  E.  A.  Solov'ev.  2  £.  A.  Solov'ev,  Polevoi,  S.  Solov'ev. 


VIII 


IVAN  GROZNIE  22; 


politan  Filipp,  Truly  the  frosts  of  winter  seemed  to  have 
got  into  men's  blood  and  all  feelings  of  mercy  and  goodwill 
to  have  evaporated  at  the  festivals  of  Noel.  To  the 
Novgorodskie,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  this  dread  visitation, 
tidings  kept  pouring  in  which  might  well  have  roused  them 
to  the  defiance  of  despair,  and  armed  them  against  their  fate. 
The  Opritchniki  had  already  drawn  a  cordon  round  the  Jan.  1570 
slobodas  and  outskirts  of  the  city,  and  were  ransacking  the 
numerous  monasteries  which  studded  the  sandy  plain,  putting 
to  death  such  of  the  inmates  as  showed  the  least  sign  of 
opposition.  But  there  was  no  Martha  to  organise  resistance, 
no  Mstislav  the  Brave  to  step  in  between  Novgorod  and  her 
doom.  When  Ivan,  accompanied  by  his  son,  courtiers,  and 
a  formidable  body-guard  of  Strielitz,  made  his  entry  into 
the  terror-stricken  city,  he  was  met  on  the  famous  Volkhov 
bridge  by  the  Vladuika  Pimen  at  the  head  of  the  clergy 
and  principal  citizens,  with  the  cross  and  sacred  banners 
displayed.  The  miraculous  ikon,  which  had  repelled  the 
attack  of  the  Souzdalskie  besiegers,  failed  to  turn  the  heart 
of  the  Tzar,  and  the  Archbishop's  quavering  blessing  was 
refused.  Novgorod  was  given  over  to  slaughter  and  pillage 
and  Pimen  himself  was  spared  only  to  perform  antics  de- 
grading alike  to  his  manhood  and  his  office.  For  six  weeks 
the  city  and  its  outskirts  was  a  continued  scene  of  confisca- 
tion and  wholesale  execution  ;  numbers  of  the  inhabitants 
were  flung  into  the  Volkhov,  at  a  point  near  the  bridge 
where  its  waters  never  freeze,  and  so  many  were  disposed  of 
in  this  way  that  lake  Ladoga  is  said  to  have  been  tainted 
by  the  carrion.  The  total  number  of  the  victims  has  been 
variously  computed,  contemporary  accounts  fixing  the  death- 
roll  from  2770,  "besides  women  and  common  folk,"  to  the 
maximum  and  probably  enormously  exaggerated  figure  of 
60,000.^  In  a  curious  and  appallingly  suggestive  register, 
preserved  at  the  Kirillov  monastery,  in  which  Ivan  used  to 
keep  a  reckoning  of  his  victims  and  apparently  apprise  his 
God  of  their  dispatch,  there  is  the  following  entry :  "  O 
Lord!    give  peace  to  the  souls  of  1505   of  Thy  servants, 

1  Karamzin,  E.  A.  Solov'ev. 


228  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


Novgorc^ians."  ^  The  number  of  unburied  corpses  was 
sufficiently  great  to  cause  a  pestilence,  which  rounded  off 
the  Tzar's  act  of  vengeance.  After  having  denuded  the 
celebrated  Cathedral  of  its  bells,  vessels,  ikons  and  other 
treasures,  and  destroyed  cattle,  grain,  and  whatever  could 
not  be  conveniently  carried  off,  Ivan  called  together  the 
wretched  remnant  of  the  citizens  and  graciously  asked  for 
their  prayers  on  behalf  of  himself  and  his  family. 

Then,  in  the  middle  of  February,  he  departed  towards 
Pskov,  leaving  the  silent  city  alone  with  its  dead.  A 
romantic,  but  not  necessarily  romancing,  element  runs 
through  the  account  of  Ivan's  dealings  with  Pskov.  Sharing 
in  the  conjectural  guilt  for  which  Novgorod  had  been  so 
mercilessly  chastised,  the  Tzar  had  devised  for  the  city  on 
the  Peipus  a  similar  punishment.  Halting  at  one  of  the 
monasteries  without  the  walls,  on  the  eve  of  his  intended 
assize,  he  was  moved  by  hearing  the  bells  of  all  the  churches 
and  religious  houses  around  toll  at  midnight,  in  funeral 
anticipation  of  the  threatened  butchery.  His  feelings  were 
still  further  worked  upon  by  the  appearance  on  the  scene  of 
a  local  celebrity,  one  Nikolai,  half- hermit,  half- charlatan, 
who  offered  him  meat,  and  on  being  indignantly  rebuked — 
it  was  Lent — boldly  accused  the  Tzar  of  feeding  on  human 
bodies.  This  stark,  uncanny  being,  in  the  vigorous  words 
of  Sir  Jerome  Horsey,  an  adventurous  Englishman  who 
visited  Moskovy  several  times  in  various  capacities,  "  with 
bold  Imprecations  and  Exorcismes  calling  him  Blood-sucker 
and  Deuourer  of  Christian  flesh,  swore  by  his  Angell  that 
hee  should  not  escape  death  by  a  present  Thunderbolt,  if 
he  or  any  of  his  did  touch  the  least  childs  haire  in  that 
Citie."^  It  is  not  improbable  that  this  madman  and  fanatic 
may  have  made  a  strong  impression  upon  a  kindred  spirit, 
and  the  unusual  occurrence  of  a  thunderstorm  in  February, 
which  the  chronicles  relate,  would  have  added  to  the  Tzar's 
superstitious  uneasiness.      Of  the  existence  of  this  "  sorcerer  " 

^  Karamzin. 

'^  Sir  lerome  Horsey' s  Obsei~vations  in  seventeene  yeeres  travels  aiid  experience 
in  Rvssia,  and  other  countries  adioyning. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  229 

Horsey  gives  evidence  at  first  hand  :  "  1  saw  this  Impostor, 
a  foule  creature  ;  hee  went  naked  Winter  and  Summer.  .  .  . 
His  HoHnesse  could  not  endure  me,"  he  adds,  which,  as  the 
Englishman  was  openly  sceptical  as  to  his  supernatural 
powers,  was  not  wonderful.  Whatever  may  have  influenced 
the  Tzar  to  an  unwonted  deviation  into  humanity,  he 
suddenly  stayed  his  avenging  hand  and  returned  to  Moskva 
with  his  Opritchniks,  his  Court,  and  the  captive  Archbishop. 
That  he  was  in  any  way  satiated  with  cruelty  does  not 
appear,  as  in  the  same  year  he  treated  the  capital  to  a 
blood -carnival  on  a  grander  scale  than  any  it  had  yet 
witnessed.  What  gave  added  alarm  to  this  new  reign  of 
terror  was  that  no  one  was  safe  from  implication,  for  the 
Tzar's  own  seeming  favourites  and  the  most  trusted  of  his 
creatures  were  arrested  one  after  the  other.  The  Basmanovs, 
father  and  son,  Viskovatui,  the  Treasurer  Founikov,  Athan- 
asie  Viazemskie,  Ivan  Vorontzov,  and  scores  of  other  princes 
and  boyarins  were  pounced  upon  and  hurried  off  into  safe 
keeping,  while  sinister  preparations  went  forward  in  the 
great  square  of  the  Kitai-gorod.  On  the  25th  July  all  was 
in  readiness  ;  eighteen  gibbets  and  a  large  cauldron  suspended 
over  a  glowing  furnace,  with  other  implements  of  punish- 
ment, met  the  Tzar's  eye  as  he  rode  with  Maluta  Skouratov 
and  other  yet  surviving  favourites  on  to  the  scene  of  execu- 
tion. But  one  important  item  was  lacking  ;  where  were 
the  onlookers  ?  The  great  square  was  deserted,  for  the 
Moskvitchi  had  hidden  themselves  away  from  the  alarming 
spectacle  which  the  Gosoudar  had  prepared  for  them  ;  there 
was  no  knowing  where  the  matter  would  stop.  Ivan  sent 
his  soldiers  to  summon  his  subjects  to  the  show,  and  even 
went  in  person  to  beat  up  the  skulking  citizens,  who  flocked 
with  quaking  hearts  to  the  various  coigns  of  vantage  round 
the  Red  Place.  The  audience  having  been  secured,  the 
prisoners  were  marched  out  in  a  long  file  to  the  scene  of 
their  punishment.  The  crowd,  scanning  the  wan  faces  of 
the  victims,  missed  that  of  Viazemskie,  who  had  died  under 
torture,  and  the  Basmanovs  were  also  absent.  A  crowning 
horror  was  reserved   for  them.      But    see,  the  Tzar  speaks. 


230  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


Raising  his  voice  that  all  might  hear,  he  demanded  of  the 
people  of  Moskva  if  the  tortures  and  executions  they  were 
about  to  witness  seemed  to  them  just  ?      They  did,  they  did. 
No  shred   of  hope  could   the   doomed  men  grasp  from  that 
hoarse  murmur  of  servile  approbation.     Like  beaten  gladiators, 
reading  their  fate  in  the  upturned  thumbs  and  hard  faces  of 
the  onlookers,  they  stood   unfriended  before  that  vast  multi- 
tude.     I.H.S.  has  taken  the  place  of  the  S.P.O.R.,  but  fifteen 
hundred  years  have  not  materially  removed  Christian  Moskva 
from  the  ethic-level  of  pagan   Rome.      Up  to  the  mounted 
monarch   was  led    the   first  victim,   Viskovatui,  whom    Ivan 
accused    of  treasonable    correspondence   with    the    King    of 
Poland,  with  the  Sultan,  and  with  the  Krim  Khan,  emphasis- 
ing his  accusations  by  slashing  the  boyarin's  face  with  his 
whip.       Bound,    gagged,   and    hung    by    the    feet,    he    was 
forthwith  hacked   to  pieces  ;  Maluta   Skouratov.  descending 
from    his  horse,  sliced  off  an  ear  by  way  of  a  beginning. 
Founikov  was  dispatched  by  alternate  drenching  with  boiling 
and  iced  water,  and  "  expired  in  horrible  torments."      Others, 
to  the  number  of  about  200,  were  put  to  death   in  various 
manners,  the  Tzar  himself  having  the  credit  of  impaling  one 
old    man   on    his    lance.^      On  what  evidence,  if  any,  these 
men    were    found    guilty    of   treason    and    disloyalty    it    is 
impossible  to  know,  but  this  at  least  may  be  remarked,  that, 
enjoying  as  they  did  the  Tzar's  favour  and  patronage,  they 
had   scarcelv  a  motive  for  wishing  to  overturn  or  undermine 
his  authorit}\      The  executions  on  the   Red    Place,  renewed 
after  an  interval  of  a  few  days,  were  not  the  only  outlet  for 
the  monarch's  anger  or   blood-thirst  ;    other  evil  deeds   are 
related  of  this  reign  of  terror,  this  running  amok  of  a  human 
being  among  his  unresisting  fellows.      It  was  said  that  Ivan 
forced   Thedor  Basmanov,  the  ''  angel-faced,"  to  kill  his  own 
father  :  a  ghastly  deed  which  did   not  save  the  perpetrator 
from   a  death   by  torture,  and   which  at  least  need  not  be 
unreser^-edly  believed   in.      Torture  was   also    meted   out  to 
the  widows  of  some  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  victims 
of  the   Red   Place,  and  eighty  were  said  to  have  been  flung 
'  Karamzin,  E.  A.  Solov'ev,  Schiemann. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  231 


into  the  Moskva  river.  Such  a  glut  of  corpses  defied 
expeditious  or  thorough  burial,  and  for  nnany  days  and 
nights  the  inhabitants  of  that  horror-haunted  city  witnessed 
packs  of  dogs  crunching  and  tearing  human  bones  and 
flesh  in  the  dr>'  ditches  beneath  the  Kreml  walls  and  in  the 
open  spaces  of  the  Kitai  -  gorod.  Some  of  the  bodies 
appear  to  have  found  their  way  into  the  tzarskie  fish-ponds, 
and  carp  and  pike  grew  bloated  on  the  rich  banquet'  And 
amid  the  gloom  and  stifled  wailing  the  dread  author  of  it 
all,  the  man  of  terror  and  blood  and  punishments,  prostrates 
himself  daily  in  the  holy  places,  bumping  his  forehead  on 
the  pavement  before  the  sacred  ikons.  Splendid  triumph  of 
the  Nazarene  !  Oh  glorious  irony  !  The  great  Orthodox  Tzar, 
conqueror  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  and  Polotzk,  master  of 
the  lives  and  liberties  of  his  trembling  subjects,  bows  in 
abject  worship  before  the  picture  of  a  woman  and  a  little 
child. 

Amid  the  seemingly  indiscriminating  severities  with 
which  Ivan  cowed  the  inhabitants  of  his  principal  cities,  his 
mind  was  engaged  in  the  conduct  of  a  dexterous  and  well- 
thought-out  foreign  policy.  The  same  year  that  witnessed 
the  episode  of  Novgorod  and  the  butchery  in  the  Kitai-gorod 
was  signalised  by  a  long-laboured  truce  (to  run  for  three  1570 
years)  between  Mosko\y  and  Poland.  The  growing  ex- 
pectancy of  a  vacancy  of  the  Polish-Lit'uanian  throne  had 
no  doubt  something  to  do  with  this  reconciliation.  That 
Ivan  seriously  put  himself  forward  as  a  candidate  for  that 
extremely  limited  and  curtailed  monarchy  seems  to  be  the 
case,  judging  from  the  significant  instructions  which  his 
ambassadors  received,  to  keep  strict  silence,  when  in  Poland, 
on  the  subject  of  the  Tzar's  domestic  t^-rannies.-  Equally 
surprising,  but  nevertheless  credit-worthy,  the  Tzar  was  not 
without  a  party  among  the  liberty  and  license-loving  Polish 
nobles,  many  of  whom,  particularly  at  Warszawa,  were  said 
to  be  adopting  Moskovite  costume  in  view  of  a  coming 
dynastic  displacement.  His  adherents  were  chiefly  among 
the  szlachta,  or  small  nobilit>%  who  numbered  in  their  ranks 

1  Horsey.  -  Schiemann,  Kaxamzin. 


232  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

many  of  the  Reformed  persuasion.  At  this  period  Protestants 
and  Orthodox  were  lumped  together  in  Poland,  under  the 
common  designation  of  Dissidents,  and  suffered  equally  at 
the  hands  of  the  dominant  Catholics.  Hence  many  members 
of  the  Diet  were  more  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  an  Austrian, 
or  other  Jesuit-ridden  king,  than  at  the  possible  unmanage- 
ability  of  the  Moskovite  Tzar.  While  awaiting  the  drift  of 
events  in  Poland,  Ivan  set  in  motion  a  course  of  action  by 
which  he  hoped  to  drive  the  Swedes  out  of  the  Baltic 
provinces.  His  idea  was  to  enlist  the  sympathy  and  support 
of  the  long-suffering  Livlanders  and  Estlanders  by  setting 
up  a  puppet  king  who  should  govern  the  old  lands  of  the 
Bund,  under  the  suzerainty  of  Moskva.  The  title  of  King  of 
Livland,  offered,  according  to  contemporary  report,  suc- 
cessively to  ex-Master  von  Fiirstenberg  and  the  Duke  of 
Kourland  (by  both  of  whom  it  was  declined),  was  eventually 
accepted  by  the  ambitious  but  effete  Magnus  of  Holstein, 
(1570)  Duke  of  Oesel  and  Wiek.  Magnus  paid  a  visit  to  Moskva 
— in  some  trepidation,  for  the  city  was  getting  an  unhealthy 
reputation — and  returned  with  the  Tzar's  proclamation  of 
his  new  dignity,  backed  up  by  five -and -twenty  thousand 
Russian  troops.  With  this  force  and  his  own  German 
guards,  the  Holsteiner  advanced  upon  Revel,  which,  however, 
held  out  against  both  his  wiles  and  his  assaults  ;  the  latter 
he  discontinued  after  a  siege  of  thirty  weeks'  duration  (i6th 
March  1571),  burning  his  camp-works  and  withdrawing  his 
army  into  quarters.  This  rebuff  settled  the  fate  of  the 
vassal  "  kingdom."  In  another  direction  Ivan's  foreign  policy 
had  been  equally  unsuccessful — in  an  attempt,  namely,  to 
cultivate  friendly  relations  with  the  Ottoman  power.  The 
embassy  which  he  sent  in  1570  to  Constantinople,  to  con- 
gratulate Sultan  Selim  on  his  accession,  was  coldly  received, 
and  a  demand  put  forward  for  the  relinquishing  of  the 
Russian  sovereignty  over  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  The 
uneasiness  which  the  Tzar  felt  with  regard  to  the  possibility 
of  a  forward  Mussulman  movement  was  increased  by  news 
which  was  brought  to  Moskva  in  the  spring  of  i  5  7 1  of  a 
warlike   activity    among    the    Krimskie    Tartars.       Whether 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE 


m 


instigated  by  Turkish  influences,  or  by  the  anti-Moskovite 
party  in  Poland,  or  whether  acting  on  his  own  initiative, 
Devlet-Girei  was  certainly  preparing  for  an  inroad  upon 
Russian  territory,  and  Ivan  hastily  assembled  an  army  of 
50,000  men,  which  he  posted,  under  the  leadership  of  several 
voevodas,  along  the  banks  of  the  Oka,  where  the  enemy  was 
expected  to  pass.  The  invading  force,  said  to  be  120,000 
strong,  eluded  this  first  line  of  defence  and  bore  straisrht 
upon  Moskva.  The  Tzar,  who  might  with  the  forces  at  his 
disposal  have  held  the  Tartars  in  check  till  the  army  of  the 
Oka  came  up  on  their  flank,  fled,  as  his  father  Vasili  had 
done,  as  most  of  the  Grand  Princes  of  Moskva  had  from 
time  to  time  done  under  similar  circumstances,  and  sheltered 
himself  at  Rostov,  leaving  the  capital  to  its  fate.  Weakened 
and  dispirited  by  this  desertion,  the  force  which  had  raced 
back  from  the  Oka  and  arrived  at  much  the  same  time  as 
the  Krimskies  made  no  attempt  to  defend  the  slobodas  and 
outlying  quarters  of  the  city,  which  were  set  on  fire  by  the 
Khan's  orders.  Ignorant,  probably,  of  the  strength  of  the 
Russian  garrison,  and  fearing  to  be  taken  unawares  by  a 
reinforcement  from  the  north,  the  Tartars  made  no  further 
move  upon  the  city,  and  indeed  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
flames  made  pillage  impossible.  With  the  exception  of  the 
stone-built  Kreml,  nearly  the  whole  town  was  destroyed,  and 
the  loss  of  life,  though  probably  enormously  exaggerated  by 
contemporary  writers,  was  undoubtedly  very  great.  "  Then 
might  you  haue  seene  a  lametable  spectacle,"  writes  an 
English  traveller  twenty  years  later,  "...  the  people  burn- 
ing in  their  houses  and  streates,  but  most  of  all  such  as 
laboured  to  passe  out  of  the  gates  farthest  from  the  enemie, 
where  meeting  together  in  a  mighty  throng,  and  so  pressing 
euery  man  to  preuent  another,  wedged  themselves  so  fast 
within  the  gate,  and  streates  neare  vnto  it,  as  that  three 
ranks  walked  one  vpon  the  others  head,  the  vppermost 
treading  downe  those  that  were  lower  :  so  that  there  perished 
at  that  time  (as  was  sayd)  by  the  fire  and  the  presse,  the 
number  of  800,000  people,  or  more."  ^  Or  less.  Another 
*  Giles  Fletcher,  the  Elder,  Of  the  Russe  Common  Wealth. 


234  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


Englishman,  Sir  Jerome  Horsey,  bears  witness  to  the  fact 
that  numbers  of  the  inhabitants,  plunging,  with  all  their 
removable  valuables,  into  the  river,  to  escape  from  the  flames 
and  the  Tartars,  sank  beneath  its  waters,  and  that  long  after 
the  bodies  had  been  disposed  of,  it  was  a  fashionable  amuse- 
ment to  drag  the  river  bed  for  submerged  treasure,  adding 
significantly,  "  I  my  selfe  was  somewhat  the  better  for  that 
fishing."  Satisfied  with  the  striking  and  easily-accomplished 
chastisement  which  he  had  inflicted  upon  the  half-dreaded, 
half-despised  enemy,  the  Khan  withdrew  his  Hordes,  carrying 
with  him  immense  numbers  of  captured  Moskovites,  and 
pursued  at  a  safe  distance  by  the  tzarskie  voevodas.  Ivan, 
returning  to  his  desolated  capital  and  dreading  a  renewal  of 
the  struggle  with  an  antagonist,  formidable  in  himself  and 
possibly  a  forerunner  of  Turkish  hostility,  began  to  reckon 
on  the  necessity  of  purchasing  peace  by  the  surrender  of 
Astrakhan.  While,  however,  the  victorious  Tartar  was 
plaguing  him  with  taunting  messages  and  importunate 
demands,  the  Tzar  diverted  his  mind  to  the  consideration  of 
a  more  pleasing  matter.  His  second  wife  Mariya  had  died 
in  1569,  and  he  had  for  some  time  contemplated  a  renewal 
of  the  marriage  state.  The  present  seemed  to  him  a  good 
opportunity  for  carrying  out  his  project,  and  the  usual  pre- 
liminaries were  set  in  motion.  The  selection  of  a  mate  for 
the  Russian  Gosoudars  was  conducted  on  a  thoroughly 
democratic  principle,  and  any  young  woman  of  healthy  and 
pleasing  appearance  might  aspire  to  the  honour  of  becoming 
Tzaritza.  On  this  occasion  over  2000  of  the  likeliest 
maidens  of  Moskovy  were  brought  to  the  Aleksandrovskie 
Sloboda,  and  the  Court  doctors  and  midwives  helped  the 
monarch  to  make  his  choice,  which  fell  upon  a  young  girl  of 
Novgorod,  Martha  Sobakin.  Either  the  work  of  selection  was 
badly  done,  or  the  Tzar  was  particularly  unfortunate,  or  the 
bride  met  with  foul  play,  for  she  died  before  the  marriage 
ceremonies  were  well  through.  Needless  to  state  the  thwarted 
widower  inclined  to  the  last  alternative,  and  several  persons 
were  put  to  death  on  suspicion.  The  proverb  "one  funeral 
makes  many  "  certainly  applies  to  the  decease  of  a  Tzaritza  in 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  235 

sixteenth-century  Moskva.  A  batch  of  boyarins  and  voevodas 
were  ordered  to  execution  the  same  winter  (1571),  on  the 
charge  of  having  been  in  league  with  the  Tartars,  and  doubt- 
less some  such  suspicion  was  a  deciding  factor  in  Ivan's 
supine  flight  before  the  invaders.  Some  were  impaled,  others 
knouted  to  death,  others  poisoned.^ 

Whether  this  sanguinary  example  had  the  effect  of  en- 
couraging "  les  autresl'  or  whether  the  damage  sustained  by 
Moskva  from  the  Tartar  brands  stung  the  Russians  to  excep- 
tional effort,  a  renewal  of  the  invasion  by  the  Khan  met  with 
a  determined  and  successful  opposition.  An  enormous  army 
of  Krim  and  Nogai  Tartars,  reinforced  by  troops  of  Yeni-  Aug.  1572 
Tscheri  and  other  Turkish  soldiers,  pushed  across  the  Oka, 
but  was  encountered  and  decisively  defeated  by  a  Moskovite 
force  of  inferior  numbers,  under  the  command  of  Kniaz 
Vorotinski  and  Ivan  Sheremetiev.  The  slaughter  was  heavy 
and  the  issue  of  the  day  swept  away  all  question  of  with- 
drawal from  Astrakhan,  and  gave  Moskovy  a  long  immunity 
from  trouble  with  the  steppe-folk.  Ivan,  who,  while  the 
attack  threatened,  had  been  seized  with  a  desire  to  visit  the 
northern  districts  of  his  dominions,  returned  from  Novgorod 
to  share  in  the  general  rejoicing.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
year  he  had  scandalised  and  embarrassed  the  heads  of  the 
Church  by  taking  unto  himself  a  fourth  wife,  Anna  Koltov- 
skoi  ;  after  having  accomplished  this  breach  of  the  Church's 
law  he  still  further  disturbed  the  spiritual  fathers  by  announc- 
ing his  sin  to  the  Synod  then  sitting  for  the  election  of  a 
Metropolitan  in  the  place  of  Kirill,  deceased,  and  demanding 
absolution.  The  Vladuikas,  torn  between  love  for  their 
precious  dogmas  and  a  natural  and  earnest  desire  to  fall  in 
with  the  Tzar's  wishes,  yielded  finally  to  the  stronger  senti- 
ment and  hallowed  the  union.  In  order  to  prevent  other  less 
privileged  persons  from  imitating  the  Tzar's  example,  they 
hastened  to  "  menace  with  a  fulminating  anathema  those  who 
should  dare  to  enter  into  a  fourth  marriage."  Antonie,  Arch- 
bishop of  Polotzk,  was  elected  Metropolitan. 

While  Moskva  was  yet  quaking  in  anticipation  of  another 

^  Karamzin,  Polevoi. 


236  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chai>. 

visit  from  Devlet-Girei,  an  anxiously  awaited  event  had  taken 
place  in  the  grand-duchy  of  Lit'uania.      At  Knyszyn,  near 
1570  Grodno,   on    the   7th   July,   had    passed   away   the    amiable 
Sigismund- August,  "  last  of  the   Yagiellos."      Instantly    the 
states  composing  the  Polish  kingdom  were  plunged  into  the 
modified  anarchy  of  an  interregnum,  and  various  aspirants 
to   the  kingly  title,   starting  suddenly  into  the  foreground, 
added   to   the  general   confusion.      The  internal    differences 
which  complicated  the  election  of  a  successor  to  the  defunct 
monarch  were  succinctly  stated   in   the  correspondence  of  a 
French  diplomat,   who  informed   his   Court  "  there  are  four 
sorts  of  discords  and  different  principles  which  greatly  retard 
the  election,  which  are  :  of  the  Lit'uanians  with  the  Poles,  of 
Great  Poland  with  Little  Poland,  of  the  barons  with  the  rest 
of  the  nobility,  and  of  the  Catholics  with  the  Protestants."  ^ 
The  faction  of  the  Szlachta,  or  small  landowners,  was  more 
or  less  identical   with  the  Great-Poland  party,  while   Little 
Poland  was  the  stronghold  of  the  higher  magnates  ;  this  line 
of    demarcation    was    further    accentuated    by  the   personal 
rivalry  of   Uchanski,   Archbishop  of  Gniezno,  who  led   the 
former  party,  and   Firley,  Grand  Marshal  of  the  realm,  who 
headed  the  other.      Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  Protestants 
were  divided   into  more  or  less  hostile  camps  of  Lutherans, 
Calvinists,  and  Anabaptists,  and  a  fair  idea  will  be  gathered 
of  the  field  wherein  the  agents  of  the  several  candidates  were 
to  ply  their  arts.      Of  the  princes  who  placed  themselves,  or 
were  placed,  in  competition  for  the  throne  of  the  Yagiellos, 
the  one  whose  claims  stood  forth  most  prominently  was  the 
Austrian  Archduke  Ernst,  second  son  of  the  Emperor  (Maxi- 
milian   II.).      The    Habsburgs,   who   had    already    absorbed 
Bohemia  and  were  almost  as  firmly  established  in  that  part 
of  Hungary  which  was  not  occupied   by  the  Turks,  had  on 
every  possible  occasion  contracted  matrimonial  alliances  with 
the  Polish  royal  House,  and  hoped  to  add  the  Lekh  kingdom 
to  their  family  dominions.      The  candidature  of  the  Archduke 
was  backed  by  the  imperial  influence  and  had,  moreover,  the 

1  Vulcob,  French  ambassador  at  Wien  ;  quoted  by  the  Marquis  de  Noailles 
in  Henri  de  Valois  et  la  Pologne  en  1 572. 


vni  IVAN  GROZNIE  237 


support  of  the  Papacy,  whose  agent,  Cardinal  Commendone, 
was  working  to  secure  his  election.  On  the  other  hand  there 
were  considerations  which  made  his  success  by  no  means  a 
foregone  conclusion  ;  the  great  body  of  the  Protestants  would 
unite  in  objecting  to  a  monarch  whose  family  traditions  were 
bound  up  with  Roman  Catholic  supremacy,  and  many  of  the 
Poles  were  apprehensive  that  an  Austrian  connection  would 
involve  them  in  a  war  with  Turkey,  a  thing  they  were  parti- 
cularly anxious  to  avoid.  Above  all,  he  personified  German 
intrusion,  an  element  naturally  distasteful  to  the  Polish 
national  spirit.  The  same  dread  of  a  foreign  war  which 
weakened  the  chances  of  the  Archduke  was  the  strongest 
factor,  especially  with  the  Lit'uanians,  in  advancing  the 
Moskovite  candidature.  The  term  of  truce  had  nearly  run 
out  and  Ivan  had  clearly  let  it  be  understood  that  an  un- 
friendly election  would  mean  renewal  of  war.  That  the 
Tzar,  as  sovereign,  might  be  a  worse  affliction  than  as  a 
hostile  neighbour  was  a  contingency  partly  provided  for  by 
the  jealous  restrictions  of  the  Pacta  conventa,  which  he 
would  be  required  to  sign  preliminary  to  his  coronation.  The 
idea  of  the  Moskovite  party  in  Lit'uania  was,  however,  to  elect 
the  weak  and  more  easily  handled  Thedor,  Ivan's  second  son, 
rather  than  the  father.  None  of  the  Protestant  princes  who 
put  themselves  forward — John,  King  of  Sweden  (brother-in- 
law  of  the  late  Sigismund-August),  Stefan  Batory,  Voevoda 
of  Transylvania,  and  the  young  Duke  Albrecht-Freidrich  of 
Prussia — were  strong  enough  to  command  the  confidence 
even  of  their  co-religionists.  A  further  candidate  there  was, 
however,  from  an  unexpected  quarter.  Henri  de  Valois, 
Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  to  his  Most  Christian  Majesty  of 
France,  and  favourite  son  of  Catherine  de  Medici,  was  a  young 
gentleman  who  was  casting  about  in  various  directions  for  an 
opening  suitable  for  the  development  of  his  ambitions,  and 
whose  relations  and  acquaintances  were  exceedingly  desirous 
to  see  him  settled.  Charles  IX.  was  anxious  to  have  this  too 
brilliant  brother  removed  to  any  sphere  other  than  the  king- 
dom of  France,  already  in  a  sufficiently  electric  condition,  a 
wish    which    was    shared   by    Coligny  and   the   Huguenots  ; 


238  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

while  Catherine  nursed  the  proud  hope  of  seeing  all  her  sons 
decorated  with  the  kingly  title.  Monsieur  himself  was  least 
enamoured  of  the  project.  From  the  Polish  point  of  view  he 
made  an  ideal  candidate  ;  belonging  to  a  powerful  House, 
which  was  neither  German  nor  Moskovite,  he  was  strong 
without  being  dangerous,  and  the  good  understanding  which 
existed  between  the  Louvre  and  the  Porte  would  be  an 
excellent  guarantee  for  immunity  from  Turkish  aggression. 
Nor  was  the  Catholic  bias  of  the  Valois  an  insuperable  ob- 
stacle to  his  election.  The  Prince  who  hunted  Huguenots 
with  such  apparent  zeal  had  in  his  boyhood  dallied  with  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation,  and  in  later  life  seriously 
considered  the  project  of  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestants  of  the  Low  Countries.^  He  was  in  fact  a  thorough 
opportunist,  and  would  probably  hold,  like  his  namesake  of 
Navarre,  in  similar  though  reversed  circumstances,  that  a 
kingdom  outweighed  the  significance  of  a  mass.  His  interests 
were  actively  pushed  by  the  ambassador  dispatched  from 
France  for  that  purpose,  Jean  de  Montluc,  Bishop  of  Valence, 
and  the  hesitancy  of  the  Emperor  and  uncompromising 
attitude  of  the  Tzar  smoothed  the  way  for  his  election.  The 
news  of  the  "  happy  and  holy  enterprise,"  which  had  been 
carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  in  the  streets  of  Paris  in 
the  small  hours  of  the  24th  August,  was  not  received  in 
Poland  with  the  same  complacency  with  which  it  was  hailed 
at  Rome,  and  the  French  candidature  received  a  severe 
check.  For  months  the  name  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou  was  in 
evil  odour  among  the  electors,  and  the  sleepless  efforts  of 
Montluc  were  directed  to  the  task  of  whitewashing  his 
employer  from  the  red  stain  of  S.  Bartholomew.  The  long- 
drawn-out  proceedings  which  delayed  the  Diet  of  election, 
and  which  gave  Poland  an  entirely  new  constitution,  altering 
the  whole  course  of  her  history,  also  gave  time  for  the  feeling 
against  the  Valois  to  die  down  ;  the  French  agents  made 
good  use  of  the  respite  and  the  Anjou  cau.se  steadily  gained 
fresh  adherents,  till  on  the  eve  of  the  election  scarcely  any 
other  candidate  was  seriously  considered.  Thus  it  came  to 
1  De  Noailles,  Henri  de  Valois,  etc. 


viii  IVAN  GROZNIE  239 

pass  that,  by  an  irony  of  fate,  the  stormy  sittings  of  the  Diet 
of  Warszawa,  which  lasted  for  the  greater  part  of  April  and  1573 
May,  resulted  in  bestowing  the  Polish  crown  on  the  prince 
who,  of  all  the  competitors,  least  coveted  it.  And  in  fact 
the  hotly-contested  prize,  as  it  came  out  of  the  long  inter- 
regnum, was  scarcely  a  brilliant  possession  ;  "  it  was  not  the 
heritage  of  the  Yagellos  intact  that  the  Bishop  of  Valence 
would  have  to  take  back  to  the  brother  of  Charles  IX.,  but  a 
crown  despoiled  of  a  part  of  its  privileges,  and,  under  the 
title  of  king,  nothing  in  truth  more  than  the  life-presidency 
of  a  republic."  ^  The  terms  of  the  celebrated  Pacta  conventa, 
to  which  every  succeeding  king  would  be  required  to  give 
his  adhesion,  were,  among  others,  that  the  king  should  have 
no  voice  in  the  election  of  a  successor  ;  must  respect  the 
religious  liberty  of  the  Dissidents  ;  must  neither  undertake 
a  war  nor  impose  taxes  without  consent  of  Diet  ;  nor  marry 
nor  divorce  a  wife  without  the  same  sanction  ;  and  that  no 
foreigners  should  hold  any  public  office. 

A  throne  pent  in  with  such  conditions  would  scarcely 
be  attractive  in  the  eyes  of  the  tyrant  of  Moskva,  and  Ivan 
seems  to  have  used  his  influence  less  to  promote  the  candi- 
dature of  himself  or  his  son  than  to  secure  the  election  of 
the  Austrian  Archduke.  That  he  should  be  anxious  to  have 
the  Empire  for  a  near  neighbour  might  appear  strange ; 
his  real  concern  was  lest  a  good  understanding  between  a 
Franco-Polish  King  and  the  Sultan  should  lead  to  his  own 
undoing.  It  was  perhaps,  however,  an  indirect  effect  of  the 
influences  of  the  free  election  on  the  banks  of  the  Vistula 
that  led  the  Tzar  to  disband  his  feared  and  hated  Opritchniks 
(1572).  While  the  Poles  were  yet  in  the  throes  of  settling 
the  procedure  of  their  Congress,  Ivan  took  advantage  of 
the  settled  state  of  affairs  in  his  own  dominions  and  the 
embarrassed  condition  of  his  neighbours  to  make  a  further 
attack  on  the  Swedish  garrisons  in  Estland.  With  an  army 
of  80,000  men  he  burst  into  a  land  whose  inhabitants  were 
complacently  engaged  in  celebrating  the  festival  of  Christmas 
week,  and  changed   the  scenes  of  carol   and    carousal    into 

1  De  Noailles. 


240  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

those  of  litany  and  desolation.  Wittenstein  was  captured 
after  a  brief  resistance,  during  which  the  Tzar's  abiding 
favourite,  Maluta  Skouratov,  lost  his  life.  His  fall  was 
avenged,  according  to  the  Livlandish  chronicles,  by  a 
holocaust  of  the  prisoners,  Swedes  and  Germans,  who  were 
burned  alive  on  a  pile  of  faggots.^  A  fit  and  seemly  deed, 
if  true,  for  the  man  who  had  exchanged  with  the  Emperor 
Maximilian  sentiments  of  pious  horror  at  the  affair  of  S. 
Bartholomew.  Further  Moskovite  successes,  and  one  of  those 
wordy  correspondences  in  which  the  Tzar  revelled,  were 
followed  by  a  curious  truce  with  Sweden,  to  run  for  two  years 
(July  1575  to  July  1577),  and  limited  in  scope  as  well  as  in 
duration,  since  it  was  only  to  effect  a  suspension  of  arms 
between  the  neighbouring  provinces  of  Novgorod  and  Finland. 
Estland  was  still  to  be  disputed  at  the  sword's  point.  For 
mysterious  reasons  of  his  own — possibly  to  lull  German  and 
Danish  susceptibilities — Ivan  continued  to  place  Magnus  of 
Holstein,  his  vassal  "  King,"  in  the  forefront  of  his  Baltic 
policy,  and  the  unwilling  Princeling  was  carried  off  to  Moskva 
to  be  solemnly  wedded  to  Mariya,  daughter  of  Vladimir 
Andreivitch.  Having  made  her  an  orphan  the  Tzar  might 
well  think  it  incumbent  on  him  to  provide  her  with  a  husband, 
but  Magnus  was  scarcely  overjoyed  with  a  dowry  of  some 
inconsiderable  presents  and  the  government  of  the  township 
of  Karkus — to  which  dimensions  his  kingdom  had  shrunk. 
1575-6  The  campaign  in  the  Baltic  debatable  lands  resulted  in  a 
further  strengthening  of  the  Russian  foothold  in  that  quarter  ; 
Pernau  was  stormed  and  taken  with  a  loss  of  7000  men  ; 
Helmet,  Ermes,  and  other  places  in  Livland  surrendered  to 
Ivan's  voevodas,  and  the  stronghold  of  Habsal,  in  Estland, 
fell  into  their  hands.  From  his  western  neighbours  the 
Tzar  had  met  with  no  opposition  in  his  sea-ward  course  ; 
the  Poles,  after  the  prolonged  and  elaborate  labours  of 
their  king-choosing,  had  been  again  confronted,  under 
extraordinary  circumstances,  with  the  dangers  and  difficulties 
of  an  interregnum.  Never  more  than  half  reconciled  to  the 
eastern  exile  which  his  restricted  Polish  sovereignty  entailed, 

^  S,  Solov'ev,  Karamzin. 


i 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  241 

Henri  de  Valois  no  sooner  heard  that  he  had  succeeded  to 
the  crown  of  S.  Louis  (his  brother  had  died  on  the  30th 
May  1574)  than  he  fled  precipitately  from  the  kingdom 
over  which  he  had  reigned  for  barely  seven  months.  Once 
more  the  shadow  of  the  Habsburg  loomed  over  the  land, 
and  there  seemed  indeed  no  suitable  candidate  with  which 
to  oppose  the  Austrian  nomination.  The  Papal,  Imperial, 
and  Moskovite  influence,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Gniezno  and  the  principal  senators,  pointed  in  the  same 
direction  ;  the  Szlachta  alone  held  out  against  the  Archduke 
and  his  father.  The  Habsburg  hopes  were  destined,  however, 
to  be  again  falsified,  and  a  new  rival  sprang  up  against  them 
in  Stefan  Batory,  Voevoda  of  Transylvania.  This  vigorous 
prince,  whose  high  qualities  had  secured  him  his  sovereignty 
on  the  death  of  the  last  of  the  Zapolya  dynasty,  speedily 
became  the  favoured  choice  of  the  Szlachta  and  Dissident 
party,  and,  as  a  vassal  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  his  election 
would  guarantee  the  Poles  from  Turkish  hostility.  On  the 
other  hand  they  were  threatened  with  the  Tzar's  displeasure 
if  they  did  not  elect  either  Maximilian  or  his  son,  the  Arch- 
duke. To  the  Poles,  if  not  to  the  Lit'uanians,  the  Moskovite 
was  a  lesser  bugbear  than  the  Turk,  and  the  popular  vote 
was  for  Batory.  The  Archbishop  and  the  Senate  adhered 
to  the  Austrian  cause,  and  the  Diet  (held  at  Warszawa,  Decem- 
ber 1575)  resulted  in  a  double  election.  The  battle  was  not 
necessarily  to  the  strong,  but  the  race  was  undoubtedly  to 
the  swift ;  in  April  of  the  following  year  the  dilatory 
Habsburg  wrote  to  inform  his  brother  of  Moskva  that  "  we, 
in  December  last,  with  great  glory  and  honour,  were  elected 
to  the  kingdom  of  Poland  and  grand  duchy  of  Lit'uania." 
Ivan  replied  to  Maximilian  that  he  congratulated  him  on  his 
election,  but  had  since  learned  that  Stefan  Batory  was  at 
Krakow,  crowned,  and  married  to  the  Princess  Anne  Yagiello 
(sister  of  Sigismund-August).  Stefan  had  shown  as  much 
hurry  to  arrive  in  his  kingdom  as  Henri  had  displayed  in 
escaping  from  it,  and  his  accession  was  an  accomplished 
fact ;  the  death  of  the  Emperor  in  the  ensuing  October  1576 
removed    the   chance   of  a   civil    contest.     The   new    King, 

R 


242  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

though  brought  up  under  Catholic  influences,  was  supposed 
at  the  time  of  his  candidature  to  be  of  the  Protestant 
communion  ;  he  adapted  his  religion,  however,  to  harmonise 
with  that  of  the  majority  of  his  subjects,  and  of  the  wife 
whom  it  was  politically  expedient  he  should  marry,  and 
during  his  reign  was  the  protector  of  the  Jesuit  party  in 
Poland.^  To  Ivan  and  to  Russia  his  elevation  boded 
trouble,  and  the  Tzar  appears  to  have  realised  the  danger 
and  to  have  taken  a  bold  but  well-considered  step  to  meet 
it.  While  Stefan  was  engaged  in  breaking  dow^n  the  armed 
resistance  of  the  burghers  of  Dantzig,  who  would  have  none 
of  him,  the  forces  of  Moskovy  were  sent  in  overwhelming 
strength  into  the  Baltic  provinces,  and  stronghold  after 
stronghold  wrested  from  Swede  and  Pole  alike.  Even  the 
Holsteiner  and  German  troops  were  treated  as  enemies — 
Duke  Magnus  was  in  temporary  disgrace — and  the  country- 
folk were  in  some  instances  punished  with  brutal  severity, 
flogged,  burned  alive,  and  in  other  ways  made  to  suffer  for 
the  obstinate  resistance  of  a  foreign  garrison.  As  a  display 
of  armed  strength  and  resolution  the  campaign  would  have 
been  valuable  had  it  been  followed  up  by  a  demand  for  a 
definite  peace  with  Poland,  coupled  with  a  threat  of  im- 
mediate invasion  of  that  country.  Ivan  had  sufficient  troops 
at  his  disposal  to  have  overrun  Kourland  and  parts  of 
Lit'uania  and  to  have  forced  peace  or  an  unseasonable  war 
upon  Stefan.  Instead  of  which,  after  having  roused  against 
himself  the  enmity  of  all  the  interests  involved  in  the  master- 
ship of  the  disputed  provinces — Swede,  Pole,  Dane,  and 
German — he  suspended  hostilities  and  returned  to  Moskva, 
there  to  renew  the  bloody  process  by  which  he  periodically 
thinned  out  his  circle  of  boyarins  and  courtiers.  Mikhail 
1577  Vorotinski,  the  conqueror  of  Devlet-Girei,  and  one  of  the 
most  illustrious  of  the  Russian  voevodas,  was  tortured  nigh 
unto  death  on  a  charge  of  sorcery,  and  died  while  being 
conveyed  to  Bielozero.  Leonidas,  successor  to  Pimen  in  the 
archiepiscopate  of  Novgorod,  was  sewn  up  in  a  bear-skin 
and  worried  to  death  by  hounds.      Other  noted  Moskovites 

1  W.  R.  MorfiU,  Poland. 


vni  IVAN  GROZNIE  243 

were  executed  in  various  manners  at  the  same  period. 
While  the  Tzar's  seemingly  blind  rage  was  striking  down 
some  of  his  most  capable  voevodas,  his  adversary  was 
straining  every  nerve  to  ensure  success  in  the  coming 
struggle.  Drawing  as  exhaustively  as  was  prudent  on  the 
resources  of  his  kingdom  and  grand  duchy,  Stefan  at  the 
same  time  applied  for  external  support  in  many  directions  ; 
from  Transylvania  came  troops,  from  Brandenburg  cannon, 
from  Sweden  active  co-operation,  while  the  Pope  and  Sultan 
individually  blessed  the  enterprise.  In  August  1579  the 
storm  burst ;  the  King,  having  formally  declared  war  on 
Ivan,  marched  upon  Polotzk,  and  the  decisive  moment  had 
arrived  when  it  would  be  seen  whether  the  new-grown 
Russian  gosoudarstvo  would  be  able  to  maintain  its  high- 
water  mark  of  western  expansion,  or  whether  all  it  had 
gained  during  the  embarrassments  and  weakness  of  its 
neighbours  would  be  lost  at  the  first  recoil.  The  composite 
army  of  Stefan  probably  consisted  of  better  fighting  material 
than  any  the  Tzar  could  send  against  him,  but  the  advantage 
of  numbers  and  resources  lay  overwhelmingly  with  the 
Moskovite.  Allowing  for  the  large  detachment  which  it 
was  necessary  to  keep  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Oka  to 
guard  the  capital  from  a  possible  Tartar  attack,  Ivan  had 
still  sufficient  forces  wherewith  to  have  returned  again  and 
again  to  the  relief  of  Polotzk,  and  to  have  extended  the  war 
at  the  same  time  into  undefended  parts  of  Lit'uania  and 
Polish  Livland.  This  plan  was  indeed  partially  put  into 
operation  ;  20,000  Asiatic  horsemen  were  dispatched  into 
Kourland,  and  reinforcements  were  sent  to  the  Russian 
garrisons  in  Livland  and  Ingermanland  (which  was  threatened 
by  the  Swedes).  But  the  scheme  of  campaign  stopped  short 
at  this  point ;  the  constitutional  timidity  of  Moskovite  war 
policy  asserted  itself,  and  Ivan  remained  with  the  bulk  of  his 
army  in  deplorable  inactivity  at  Pskov,  while  Polotzk  and 
the  neighbouring  stronghold  of  Sokol,  bravely  defended  but 
perseveringly  attacked,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  invader. 
The  harrying  of  the  provinces  of  Sieversk  and  Smolensk 
wound  up  the  Polish  campaign  for  the  year.      Accustomed 


244  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

to  winter  warfare,  the  light  troops  of  Moskovy  might  have 
taken  advantage  of  the  cold  season  to  have  inflicted  retributive 
damage  on  their  enemies,  but  the  Tzar,  thoroughly  alarmed 
at  the  military  vigour  of  this  upstart  opponent,  wasted  his 
opportunity  in  fruitless  negotiations  and  in  soft  answers 
which  failed  to  turn  away  wrath.  Stefan,  having  allayed 
the  grumblings  of  his  barely  tractable  subjects,  marched  in 
1580  the  ensuing  summer  against  Velikie-Louki,  which,  after  a 
spirited  defence,  was  carried  on  the  5  th  September.  Through- 
out the  winter  the  war  continued  in  the  Baltic  lands,  where 
Poles,  Swedes,  and  Danes — Magnus  had  early  thrown  off 
his  allegiance  to  Moskva — captured  several  places  from  the 
Russians.  Ivan,  who  had  retired  to  the  gloomy  sanctuary  of 
his  beloved  Aleksandrov,  continued  his  proposals  for  peace 
in  a  correspondence  with  Stefan,  which  gradually  assumed  an 
angrier  tone.  "  Man  of  blood  !  "  breaks  forth  this  astonishing 
letter-writer,  "  remember  that  there  is  a  God." 

Amid  the  troubles  pressing  upon  him  from  without,  the 
sovereign  still  found  time  for  marrying  and  giving  in 
marriage.  The  bride  for  whose  espousal  he  had  obtained 
the  dispensation  of  the  Church  had  proved  sterile,  at  least 
she  had  not  increased  his  family,  and  she  was,  like  his 
(1575)  father's  first  wife,  dispatched  to  a  convent,  while  another 
Anna  replaced  her  ;  on  this  occasion  the  episcopal  blessing 
was  not  asked  for.  Now,  while  the  flames  of  disastrous  war 
were  blazing  over  the  lands  which  a  century  of  patient  effort 
had  reclaimed  from  the  west,  Ivan  celebrated  at  Aleksandrov 
1580  his  nuptials  with  Mariya,  daughter  of  the  boyarin  Thedor 
Nagoi,  and  those  of  his  second  son,  Thedor,  with  Irena, 
sister  of  the  voevoda  Boris  Godounov. 

The  insatiate  Stefan  continued  to  employ  both  pen  and 
sword  against  his  hard-pressed  adversary.  In  a  letter  reject- 
ing Ivan's  renewed  offers  of  peace,  with  which  he  prefaced  a 
new  campaign,  he  taunted  the  Tzar  with  his  ill-sitting 
correctitude  ;  "  You  reproach  me  with  having  mutilated  the 
dead  ;  it  is  false,  but  certain  is  it  that  you  torture  the 
living."  Entering  thoroughly  into  the  style  and  spirit  of 
Ivan's  controversial  essays,  he  further  recommended  him  to 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  245 

re-read  the  fiftieth   Psalm  in  order  to  acquaint  himself  with 
the  duty  of  a  Christian.      The  Tzar  had  found  his  match. 

As  in  the  two  preceding  years,  the  month  of  August  1581 
brought  with  it  Batory,  thundering  his  cannon  this  time 
against  the  walls  of  Pskov.  The  reputation  of  the  great 
captain  had  drawn  to  him  warriors  from  many  lands,  and 
the  white-eagle  standard  flapped  in  the  van  of  an  army, 
100,000  strong,  mustering  in  its  ranks  Poles,  Letts, 
Magyars,  Austrians,  Kourlanders,  Prussians,  Lubeckers, 
Danes,  and  Scots.  The  ancient  city  on  the  Peipus  shore, 
which  for  many  a  stormy  hundred  years  had  been  a  bulwark 
of  the  Russian  land  against  the  aggressions  of  the  west  folk, 
opposed  a  heroic  resistance  to  the  mighty  efforts  which  were 
made  for  its  subjection,  and  the  flood  of  Polish  conquest 
received  a  timely  check.  The  stupor  of  fear  and  helpless- 
ness which  seemed  to  have  settled  down  on  the  Tzar  and 
his  voevodas  neutralised  to  a  great  extent  the  effect  of  this 
stubborn  defence  ;  the  Swedes  captured  Habsal,  Narva,  and 
other  places  of  less  importance  in  Estland,  and  later,  led  by 
de  la  Gardie,  one  of  those  brilliant  soldiers  with  whom 
France  periodically  fascinated  the  world,  penetrated  into 
Russian  territory  and  took  Ivangorod,  Yam,  and  Kopor'e. 
Soon  after  these  disasters  Ivan  effected  a  ten  years'  truce  Jan.  1582 
with  Batory,  a  composition  being  brought  about  largely  by 
the  diplomatic  efforts  of  Pope  Gregory  XIII.,  who  was 
fascinated,  as  many  an  astute  Pontiff  had  been,  with  the 
prospect  of  alluring  Russia  into  the  Catholic  fold.  The 
terms  of  the  truce  were  ruinously  disadvantageous  to  the 
gosoudarstvo,  and  Ivan  could  scarcely  have  been  forced  to 
sacrifice  more  if  he  had  staked  and  lost  a  series  of  pitched 
battles  against  his  foe.  Velikie-Louki  was  restored  to  him, 
but  Polotzk  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  victors,  and 
Livland,  snatched  piecemeal  from  the  Teutonic  knights  and 
contested  inch  by  inch  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  was  yielded 
at  one  wrench  to  Poland.  The  patient  and  persistent  efforts 
of  a  long  reign,  the  dogged  struggle  towards  the  shores  of 
the  Baltic  and  free  intercourse  with  Western  Europe,  were 
relinquished  as  the  price  of  a  temporary  and  uncertain  peace, 


246  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

and  the  Moskovite  Empire  was  thrown  back  upon  itself,  like 
a  conquered  Titan  thrust  down  into  his  chasm.  And  in 
another  direction  Ivan  had  with  his  own  hand  fatally 
shattered,  in  a  fit  of  unrestrained  passion,  the  dynastic  hopes 
and  strivings  which  had  been  advanced  and  safeguarded 
with  such  ruthless  severities.  Side  by  side  with  the  gloomy 
Tzar  in  his  later  years,  partaker  of  his  amusements  and 
debauches,  sharer  of  his  labours  of  State,  had  grown  up  the 
young  Ivan  Ivanovitch,  designed  to  carry  on  the  holy  line 
of  Moskva  when  his  father  should  be  no  more.  And  in  one 
respect  at  least  he  had  shown  himself  an  apt  pupil  ;  he  had 
already  married  three  wives  "  without  having  been  a 
widower."  ^  It  was  no  part  of  the  Moskovite  theory  of 
government  that  the  Princes  of  the  Blood  should  expose 
their  sacred  persons  in  the  forefront  of  their  country's 
battles,  and  the  young  Ivan  does  not  appear  to  have  de- 
parted from  the  prevailing  custom  of  passive  aloofness  ;  the 
humiliations  and  losses  which  the  Russian  State  was  suffering 
at  the  hands  of  Batory  stung  the  Tzarevitch,  however,  into 
a  desire  to  show  a  bolder  front  to  the  oppressor,  and  he 
requested  his  father  to  let  him  lead  an  army  to  the  relief  of 
Pskov,  then  the  centre-point  of  the  Polish  attack.  A  natural 
and  proper  request,  under  the  circumstances,  but  to  the 
suspicion-haunted  old  Tzar,  on  that  fatal  November  day,  it 
was  the  bursting-in  of  the  dreaded  summons,  "  the  younger 
generation  knocking  at  the  door."  Wildly  he  accused  his 
son  of  desiring  to  supplant  him,  wildly  struck  at  him  with 
his  terrible  iron-tipped  staff;  Boris  Godounov,  rushing  in  to 
save  the  Tzarevitch,  received  most  of  the  blows,  but  one  had 
crashed  upon  the  youth's  head,  which  would  never  now  wear 
the  crown  of  all  the  Russias.  The  heavy  thuds  suddenly 
ceased  and  a  wail  of  anguish  rang  through  the  silent  palace  : 
"  Unhappy  me,  I  have  killed  my  son  ! "  The  terrified 
attendants,  rushing  into  the  chamber,  found  the  wretched 
father  weeping  over  the  body  of  the  dying  Tzarevitch.  In 
one  moment  of  blind  fury  the  primeval  ape-instinct  had 
leaped  forth  and  had  destroyed  the  weaving  and  toiling  of  a 

^  Karamzin. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  247 

lifetime  of  specialised  effort.  Ivan  Ivanovitch  died  a  few 
days  later  (19th  November  1581)  from  the  effects  of  the 
blow,  and  Greek  monks  at  Constantinople,  Jerusalem, 
Antioch,  and  Alexandria  chanted  subsidised  prayers  for  the 
repose  of  his  soul.  As  in  the  preceding  generation,  the 
next  heir  (Thedor)  ^  was  a  weakling,  and  the  Tzar's  mad  act 
had  opened  up  the  possibility  of  his  throne  passing  to  one 
of  the  boyarin  families  upon  whose  repression  so  much 
savage  ingenuity  had  been  expended.  The  dreary  outlook 
with  which  the  old  man  was  confronted  may  have  largely 
influenced  his  supine  surrender  to  Polish  demands,  and  the 
equally  humiliating  truce  with  Sweden,  effected  a  year  later,  1583 
by  the  terms  of  which  not  only  Estland,  but  Narva,  Ivan- 
gorod.  Yam,  and  Kopor'e  were  left  in  the  possession  of  the 
victors.  Moskovy  was  still  further  shut  in  from  the  sea,  and 
the  Peipus,  which  had  been  a  Russian  lake,  became  a  natural 
barrier  between  three  converging  monarchies.  One  ray  of 
success  and  aggrandisement  pierced  through  the  miasma 
gloom  that  shrouded  the  Moskovite  land  and  gathered 
thickest  around  the  tzarskie  palace.  In  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century  which  had  witnessed  the  opening  up  of  far  scarce- 
dreamt -of  regions  by  daring  European  explorers,  the 
century  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  of  the  bold  sea-captains  who 
shed  lustre  on  "  the  spacious  days  of  great  Elizabeth,"  the 
Russian  Tzarstvo  was  swollen  by  the  haphazard  conquest  of 
the  vast  Sibirian  "  province  ; "  a  province  which  "  com- 
prises about  a  thirteenth  part  of  the  globe,  and  is  almost 
3,000,000  square  miles  larger  than  the  whole  of  Russia  in 
Europe,  including  both  Poland  and  Finland."  ^  Nor  was 
this  huge  region  of  the  north,  this  "  land  of  the  long  nights," 
as  the  Chinese  had  called  it  in  the  remote  past  of  their 
history,  a  barren  and  unprofitable  possession  ;  mines  of  salt, 
copper,  and  silver,  forests  stocked  with  valuable  fur-bearing 
animals,  and  watered  by  navigable  rivers  and  large  fish- 
yielding  lakes,  and  in  some  districts  tracts  of  fertile  arable 

1  Pronounced  Fedor ;  the  Russian  letter  corresponding  to  the  Greek  Theta 
in  form  has  been  rendered  Th  (in  the  proper  names  Thedor,  Martha,  etc.)  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  Slavonic  F,  but  it  has  the  same  pronouncing  value  as  the 
latter  letter.  2  Pember. 


248  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

land,  compensate  for  the  awful  desolation  which  spreads  over 
the  greater  part  of  it  during  the  long  winter.  For  many 
centuries  the  Russians  had  tapped  at  the  outer  fringe  of  this 
unexplored  wilderness,  and  the  enterprising  folk  of  Nov- 
gorod had  brought  some  of  its  produce  into  their  markets  ; 
the  later  Grand  Princes  had  put  forward  claims  to  a 
shadowy  sovereignty  over  the  principality  or  khanate  of 
Sibir  (a  town  on  the  Irtuish),  and  Ivan  himself  had  kept  an 
eye  on  this  ultima  Thule  of  the  Moskovite  forests.  The 
Stroganovs,  descendants  of  a  merchant  family  of  Tartar 
extraction  who  had  settled  in  the  oblast  of  Perm,  were 
granted  powers  of  administration  over  as  much  territory  as 
they  could  reclaim  from  the  tribes  on  their  frontier,  and  a 
system  of  patient  pioneering  was  carried  on  for  some  twenty 
years.  The  happy  idea  of  utilising  the  restless  military 
energies  of  the  Don  Kozaks,  who  were  a  scourge  alike  to 
their  Tartar  and  Russian  neighbours,  in  more  thoroughly 
exploiting  the  Sibirian  country,  occurred  to  the  administra- 
tors of  the  Moskovite  outpost  ;  an  invitation  was  sent  to  a 

1579  band  of  these  freebooters,  who  had  made  their  own  country 
too  hot  to  hold  them,  to  turn  their  weapons  against  the 
"  infidels "  who  were  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the 
White-Russian  traders.  The  Kozaks,  headed  by  a  chief 
named  Ermak,  responded  readily  to  an  offer  which  promised 
them  full  indulgence  of  their  fighting  and  marauding  in- 
stincts, with  the  additional  advantage  of  official  sanction. 
They  were  outlaws  most  of  them,  and  would  have  been  put 
to  lingering  deaths  if  they  had  strayed  into  the  clutches  of 
Moskva,  and  the  Tzar  was  highly  scandalised  at  their  em- 
ployment in  his  service  ;  he  showed  himself,  however,  to  be 
of  a  forgiving  disposition  when,  with  a  {^^  hundred  followers, 

1581  the  intrepid  Ermak  had  conquered  for  him  the  vast  north- 
eastern province.  The  Kozak  chief,  still  struggling  to  hold 
and  extend  the  territories  he  had  won,  received  as  a  mark 
of  Ivan's  approval  a  cuirass  which  had  once  adorned  the 
monarch's  person.  As  if  symbolical  of  the  ruin  which  so 
often  attended  the  Tzar's  favour,  the  present  was  the  con- 
tributing cause  of  Ermak's  destruction  ;  plunging  one  night 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  249 

into  the  waters  of  the  Irtuish,  to  escape  from  a  surprise  attack 
of  his  enemies,  the  weight  of  the  armour  bore  him  down, 
and  he  sank  in  the  icy  flood.  Ivan's  reign  had  opened 
auspiciously  with  the  conquest  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  ;  it 
closed  with  the  acquisition  of  Sibiria,  by  which  Russia  made 
her  first  giant  stride  into  Asia. 

Amid  the  state  and  domestic  troubles  which  shadowed  Oct.  1583 
the  Tzar's  old  age,  and  while  he  was  endeavouring  to  bring 
about  a  marriage  between  himself  and  one  of  the  English 
aristocracy  (Lady  Mary  Hastings),  the  woman  who  was 
still  his  wife  presented  him  with  another  Dimitri — a  puny 
princeling,  born  surely  in  an  evil  hour,  whose  ghost  was  to 
haunt  the  land  for  many  a  woeful  year.  A  few  months 
later  Ivan's  health  began  to  fail,  and  when,  from  the  Red 
Staircase  of  the  great  palace  at  Moskva,  he  observed  a  comet 
in  the  winter  sky  "  of  which  the  tail  had  the  form  of  a 
cross,"  he  beheld  in  it  the  presage  of  his  death.  Sickening 
rapidly,  he  expired  somewhat  abruptly,  while  engaged  in  a 
game  of  chess  with  one  of  his  courtiers,  on  the  i  8th  March 
1584. 

The  great  death-dealing  Tzar  was  dead  himself  at  last, 
the  child  that  had  been  so  fervently  prayed  for  had  gone 
back,  in  the  fulness  of  his  years,  whence  he  had  come. 
They  tonsured  the  grim  corpse  that  frightened  them  still, 
and  called  it  Jonah,  in  the  name  of  the  Kirillov  monastery ; 
but  they  buried  it  as  the  Orthodox  Tzar,  Ivan  Vasilievitch, 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Mikhail  the  Archangel,  amid  the  strik- 
ing of  the  great  bells  of  the  Kreml  and  the  sobs  and 
lamentations  of  the  people. 

Among  Russian  historians  Ivan  IV.  has  found  apologists 
as  well  as  writers  who  have  held  him  up  to  execration  and 
condemned  his  statecraft  and  his  cruelties  alike.  Even 
while  examining  critically  the  evidence  against  him  on  the 
latter  score,  the  result  arrived  at  is  that  he  was  probably  as 
"  terrible "  as  he  is  painted.  Chronicles  and  historical 
accounts  were  still  largely  in  ecclesiastical  hands,  and  scant 
justice  would  be  done  to  the  memory  of  a  man  who  had 
married  six  or  seven  wives.      The  Church  might  forgive  his 


250  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


hates,    but    never    his     loves.       Nor    can     the    evidence    of 
Kourbski  be  accepted  as  unbiassed  in  the  matter  of  Ivan's 
character.      Other   contemporary  witnesses    there    are,  how- 
ever,   whose   testimony  points    in    the   same   direction,    and 
who    were    in    no    way    interested    in    libelling    the    Tzar. 
Horsey,  who  was    on   terms  of  good    fellowship  with   him, 
wrote,    "The    Emperour     liueth    in    feare,    daily    discouers 
Treasons,  and  spends  much  time  in  torturing  and  execution." 
A   Venetian  attached  to  the   Polish  Embassy  at  Moskva  in 
1570   described  the  Tzar  as  "the  greatest  tyrant  who  has 
ever   existed,"    and    mentions    a   delinquent   voevoda   being 
thrown  to    a  savage    bear,  "  kept    for   that   purpose."      The 
cruelties  and  oppressions  practised   by  the  Russian  monarch 
were  widely  commented  on  during  both  the  Polish  elections, 
and    the    reports  largely  militated   against   his   candidature. 
Finally  the  document  in   the   Kirillov  monastery,  in  which 
the  Tzar  complacently  prays  for  the  souls  of  3470  of  his 
victims,  would,  if  authentic,  show  that  the  extent  at  least  of 
his  executions  has  not  been  exaggerated.      Nor  is  this  gloat- 
ing savagery,  blended   as  it  was  with  a  rational  and  under- 
standable policy,  difficult  to  comprehend.      Ivan  the  Terrible 
was  the  outcome  of  a  long  line  of  Moskovite  princes,  men 
who  had  been  actuated   by  one  ruling  idea,  which  idea  was 
in   him  so  developed  and  specialised    that  he  was  nothing 
short  of  a  monomaniac.      The  idea  was  that  Moskovy,  and 
God,  and    Gosoudar   were   scarcely  distinguishable   entities, 
bound  up  in   indissoluble  bonds.      With  the  substitution  of 
other  countries,  other  sovereigns   in   other  days  have  fallen 
into  the  same  confusion.     Jealous,  awe-inspiring,  pain-inflict- 
ing,   terrible — such  was    the   conception    of   a    God    among 
peoples  in  most  parts  of  the  world,  such  was  the  character 
which  came  naturally  to  the  holy.  Orthodox,  Moskva-bred 
Tzar.       The    religious    side    of    Ivan's    nature    was    always 
prominent  ;    his    prostrations    in    the    churches,   his    zeal    in 
monastic  regulations,  the  pious  reflections  which  formed   so 
remarkable  a  part  of  his  correspondence,  the  solemn   fore- 
bodings over  Kourbski's  soul,  were  all  indications  of  a  mind 
steeped  in  dogmatic  belief. 


VIII  IVAN  GROZNIE  251 

Grim  and  dreary,  mean  and  monstrous,  as  the  Moskovy 
of  this  period  seems,  with  its  Aleksandrovskie  sloboda,  its 
gibbets,  axes,  impalements,  and  boiling  cauldrons,  its  man- 
devouring  hounds  and  blood  -  splashed  bear  -  dens,  its 
Kromiesniki  and  dumb  driven  population,  its  gutters  run- 
ning red  and  carp  growing  bloated  on  human  flesh,  and 
above  all,  everywhere,  those  glittering  crosses  ;  yet  not  in 
Eastern  Europe  alone  could  "  such  things  be."  A  brilliant 
writer,  drawing  his  materials  from  the  history  of  mediaeval 
Italy  both  before  and  after  the  Renaissance,  has  "  pictured 
the  awful  and  beautiful  forms  of  those  whom  vice  and  blood 
and  weariness  had  made  monstrous  or  mad  :  Filippo,  Duke 
of  Milan,  who  slew  his  wife,  and  painted  her  lips  with  a 
scarlet  poison  that  her  lover  might  suck  death  from  the 
dead  thing  he  fondled  ;  .  .  .  Gian  Maria  Visconti,  who 
used  hounds  to  chase  living  men,  and  whose  murdered  body 
was  covered  with  roses  by  a  harlot  who  had  loved  him  ; 
.  .  .  Ezzelin,  whose  melancholy  could  be  cured  only  by  the 
spectacle  of  death,  and  who  had  a  passion  for  red  blood  as 
other  men  have  for  red  wine ;  .  .  .  Sigismondo  Malatesta, 
.  .  .  the  Lord  of  Rimini,  whose  effigy  was  burned  at  Rome 
as  the  enemy  of  God  and  man,  who  strangled  Polyssena 
with  a  napkin,  and  gave  poison  to  Ginevra  d'Este  in  a  cup 
of  emerald ; "  ^  .  .  .  these  examples,  garnered  from  one 
corner  of  Western  Europe,  show  that  humanity  and  in- 
humanity are  sometimes  convertible  terms  under  sunny 
Italian  skies,  as  well  as  amid  dark  pine-forests  and  snow- 
piled  wastes.  The  century  which  produced  the  Moskovy  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible  was  not  barren  of  sinister  deeds  in  other 
parts  of  Christendom,  and  Russia  was  at  least  free,  perhaps 
by  very  reason  of  its  stifling  autocracy,  from  the  horrors 
which  attended  the  great  religious  upheaval  in  the  West  ; 
when  Paris  and  the  French  provinces  were  glutted  with 
Huguenot  blood  ;  when  Alva  was  dealing  out  "  confiscation, 
imprisonment,  exile,  torture,  and  death  "  to  the  Protestants 
of  the  Netherlands  ;  when  the  Calvinists  of  Geneva  were 
burning  Servetus  alive  for  "  heresy  "  and  roasting  men  and 

1  Wilde,  The  Picture  of  Dorian  Gray. 


252  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE        chap,  vin 


women  to  death  for  "  witchcraft "  ;  when  Calvin  himself  was 
suggesting  to  the  Lord  Protector  Somerset  that  both 
Catholics  and  Protestant  sectaries  "alike  well  deserve  to 
be  repressed  by  the  sword "  ;  and  when,  in  Northern 
Germany,  banishment  and — in  the  case  of  the  Chancellor 
Crell — the  scaffold  were  being  employed  by  the  Lutherans 
to  stamp  out  Calvinism. 

S.  Solov'ev,  E.  A.  Solov'ev,  Polevoi,  Schiemann,  Karamzin,  Pember. 


\ 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    GREAT    BOYARIN 

When  the  people  of  Moskva  became  sufficiently  familiar 
with  the  fact  that  their  terrible  Gosoudar  was  dead  and  safely 
buried,  even  if  their  imagination  could  not  picture  him,  as 
his  son  had,  in  his  coronation  speech,  solemnly  assured  them, 
"  transformed  into  an  angel,"  they  began  to  take  stock  of  the 
men  who  had  replaced  him  in  the  government.  The  effete 
and  placid  Thedor  was  supported  by  a  Douma  (Council)  of 
five.  Of  these  Ivan  Petrovitch  Shouyskie,  member  of  a  family 
which  had  tasted  the  sweets  of  power  and  drained  the  dregs 
of  disgrace  in  the  early  years  of  the  late  reign,  had  won  new 
consideration  and  honour  by  his  celebrated  defence  of  Pskov 
Mstislavskie  was  another  Rurik- descended  boyarin-kniaz 
Bogdan  Bielskie  represented  the  last  of  Ivan's  Vremenszhiki 
Nikita  Romanov  was  important  as  maternal  uncle  of  the  new 
Tzar,  and  Boris  Godounov,  descendant  of  a  Tartar  family 
Christianised  in  the  fourteenth  century,^  stood  nearest  the 
throne  from  the  fact  of  being  brother  to  the  Tzaritza  Irena.^ 
The  Douma,  thus  constituted,  did  not  long  retain  its  original 
formation.  A  sudden  popular  commotion  in  the  capital  took 
the  form  of  an  ugly  rush  towards  the  Kreml ;  the  Kitai-gorod 
was  overrun  by  a  surging  mob  of  many  thousands,  scarcely 
to  be  held  back  by  the  strielitz  from  forcing  the  gates  of  the 
citadel.  Mstislavskie  and  Romanov,  fronting  this  tumultuous 
gathering  and  inquiring  the  nature  of  its  demands,  learned 

^  N.  Kostomarov,  Rousskaya  Istoriya,  etc. 

^  Karamzin  distinguishes  the  first  as  Ivan  Petrovitch  Shouyskie,  Kostomarov 
as  Petr  Ivanovitch  Shouyskie,  while  Solov'ev  gives  an  alternative  of  Ivan  Petro- 
vitch or  Thedor  Shouyskie. 


254  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


from  a  thousand  throats  that  the  blood  of  Bogdan   Bielskie 
was  in  request.      A  compromise  was  effected  ;  the  offending 
boyarin  was  removed  from  the  Council  to  the  comparatively 
harmless   post   of   Governor   of  Nijhnie-Novgorod,   and   the 
Moskvitchi  returned   to  their  houses.      Whether  this  was  a 
spontaneous  ebullition,  a  reaction  from  the  passive  endurance 
under   Ivan,  or  whether  it  was  set  afoot  by  the  Shouyskie 
family,  who  had  considerable  influence  among  the  merchant 
class,  and  were  not  unused  to  such  machinations,  it  strength- 
ened the  hands  of  the  one  man  whose  authority  dwarfed  that 
of  Romanov,  Shouyskie,  and   Mstislavskie  alike.      Godounov 
was  a  man  capable  of  grasping  to  the  full  the  advantages 
which  his  position  as  kinsman  of  a  weak,  easily-ruled  sovereign 
cfave  him,  and  he  was  of  sufficient  merit  to  labour  for  the 
welfare  of  the   State  as  well  as  for  his  own   interests.      The 
latter   were    by    no    means    neglected  ;    immense    territorial 
possessions  in  the  Dvina  district  and  along  the  valley  of  the 
Moskva,  certain  State  revenues  and  other  desirable  perquisites 
swelled  his  yearly  income  to  the  estimated  total  of  93,000 
roubles,^   and  he  was  reputed  to  be   able  to  bring    100,000 
men  into  the  field."      But  the  man  who  swayed  the  councils 
of  the  Tzarstvo  and  stood  behind  the  puppet-monarch  Thedor 
was  far  removed  from  the  ordinary  type  of  Vremenszhikie, 
and  the  internal  and   foreign  affairs   of  the   realm   suffered 
nothing  by  the  transfer  of  administration  from   Ivan   IV.  to 
Boris  Godounov.      His  predominance  checked,  if  it  did   not 
altogether  repress,  the  boyarin  struggles  and  intrigues  which 
the  weakness  of  the  Tzar  invited,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
man  who  was  practically  Regent  had  the  address  to  govern 
as  though  with  the  co-operation  of  the  whole  Council.      One 
of  the  first  acts  necessitated  by  the  political  circumstances  of 
the  Court  was  the  removal  or  banishment  of  the  Tzarevitch 
Dimitri,  with  his  mother  and  the  whole  clan  of  the  Nagois, 
to  Ouglitch,  a  town  some  90  verstas  from   Moskva.      Here 
they  remained  in  a  state  of  repressed  disaffection,  biding  their 

^  According  to  Karamzin  900,000  roubles. 

2  S.  Solov'ev  ;  N.  Kostomarov,  Roiisskaya  htoriya  v'  jhizneopisaniyakh  eya 
glavnieysktkh  dieyatelen. 


IX  7HE  GREAT  BOYARIN  255 

time  till  the  day  when  the  young  Dimitri  should  succeed  his 
half-brother  and  the  Nagois  should  dispossess  the  Godounovs. 
This  was  a  factor  which  Boris  had  always  to  reckon  with, 
and  which  perhaps  forced  his  statesmanship  out  of  the  legiti- 
mate groove  of  throne-serving.  That  his  ascendancy  would 
be  accepted  without  a  struggle  by  the  other  members  of  the 
Council  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  ;  Romanov  died  in 
1586,  and  soon  after  Mstislavskie  drifted  over  to  the  Shouy- 
skie  faction,  in  opposition  to  Godounov.  That  intrigues 
would  be  set  on  foot  against  his  authority  was  extremely 
probable,  but  whether  a  definite  plot  existed  or  not,  one  was 
at  least  "  discovered,"  in  which  the  two  counsellors  and  several 
other  boyarins  were  implicated.  The  offenders  were  dealt 
with  in  a  spirit  of  moderation  which  had  been  long  foreign 
to  the  Court  of  Moskva  ;  Mstislavskie  entered  the  Kirillov 
monastery  at  Bielozero,  others  of  his  party  were  imprisoned 
or  banished  to  distant  parts  of  the  realm.  The  Shouyskie, 
enjoying  the  protection  of  the  Metropolitan  (Dionisie),  sur- 
vived the  storm  which  swept  away  so  many  of  their  colleagues. 
Meanwhile  the  Regent's  diplomacy  had  been  exerted  to  defer, 
for  the  time  being,  hostilities  with  any  of  the  four  states — 
Turk,  Pole,  Swede,  and  Tartar — which  permanently  threatened 
Russia  with  aggression.  With  Sweden  a  prolongation  of  the 
truce  for  four  years  was  effected  in  December  1585;  the 
Krimskie  khanate  was  weakened  by  civil  war  and  dynastic 
revolutions,  and  little  was  to  be  feared  from  that  quarter. 
The  chief  danger  lay  with  Poland,  and  Batory  was  only  held 
back  by  the  controlling  hand  of  the  Diet  and  the  protests  of 
the  Lit'uanian  landowners  from  renewing  his  profitable  cam- 
paigns against  Moskovy.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was 
with  feelings  of  relief  that  the  Council  of  State,  sitting  at 
Moskva,  heard,  on  the  20th  December  1586,  of  the  death  of 
their  enemy,  which  had  taken  place  eighteen  days  earlier 
(13th  December  according  to  the  new  reckoning  of  the 
calendar,  initiated  by  Pope  Gregory  and  adopted  throughout 
west  continental  Europe,  by  which  Russian — and  English — 
time  was  left  twelve  days  behind).  The  death  of  this  prince 
reversed  the  whole  position  of  affairs  between  the  two  coun- 


256  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

tries,  and  instead  of  living  in  constant  apprehension  of  fresh 
inroads  upon  their  territory,  the  Moskovites  were  able  to 
entertain  the  prospect  of  an  advantageous  union  with  the 
neighbour  State.  For  the  third  time  Thedor  had  a  chance 
of  securing  the  Polish  crown  by  election,  and  Godounov 
hastened  to  support  his  candidature  with  more  vigorous 
measures  than  had  been  employed  on  the  former  occasions. 
The  Russian  party,  both  in  Poland  and  the  grand  duchy, 
had  gained  strength  since  the  last  interregnum,  and  the 
Regent  was  able  to  offer  terms  of  a  nature  likely  to  appeal 
to  many  of  the  electors.  A  perpetual  peace  between  the 
two  Slav  powers  would  allow  of  a  vigorous  and  hopeful 
opposition  to  Ottoman  aggression,  and  the  troops  of  Moskov}', 
including  Kozaks,  Tcherkess  horsemen,  and  Tartars  from 
Eastern  Russia,  would  be  placed,  free  of  charges,  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Poles.  Moldavia,  Bosnia,  Servia,  and  Hungary 
would  be  wrested  from  the  Sultan  and  incorporated  with 
Poland  (an  arrangement  to  which  the  Kaiser  might  have  had 
a  word  to  say),  and  Estland  would  be  snatched  in  like 
manner  from  Sweden  and  annexed  to  the  Lekh  kingdom, 
except  Narva,  which  would  be  Moskovy's  modest  share  of 
the  spoil.  Moreover,  the  rights  and  liberties,  as  well  as  the 
taxes  and  revenues  of  Poland,  would  remain  in  the  hands  of 
the  Senate.  Neither  of  the  alternative  candidates  —  the 
Archduke  Maximilian,  brother  of  the  Emperor,  and  Sigis- 
mund,  son  of  King  John  of  Sweden  and  of  a  Yagiello  princess 
— could  hold  forth  such  tempting  inducements.  The  imperial 
Habsburg  family  was  held  in  cheap  estimation  on  account  of 
its  failure  either  to  defend  its  hereditary  dominions  against 
the  Turks,  or  to  exert  its  authority  over  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Northern  Germany,  and  the  Emperor  himself  was 
alluded  to  as  "  great  only  by  title,  rich  only  in  debts."  The 
Archbishop  of  Gniezno,  who  had  at  one  time  and  another 
supported  the  Valois  and  Habsburg  parties,  on  this  occasion 
exerted  his  influence  on  behalf  of  the  Rurikovitch.  An 
anarchical  assembly  which  met  near  Warszawa  in  July  (i  587) 
under  the  name  of  a  Diet,  but  which  resembled  more  a  triple- 
divided   camp,  was  reduced   to    some    degree   of  order  and 


IX  THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  257 


coherence  by  the  adoption  of  badges  distinctive  of  the  various 
candidates.  The  partisans  of  Thedor  displayed  a  sJiapka 
(conical  Russian  head-gear),  those  of  Maximilian  an  Austrian 
cap,  while  the  sea-power  of  Sweden  was  typified  by  a  herring 
— presumably  salted.  The  shapka  carried  the  day  by  a 
large  preponderance,  and  nothing  remained  for  the  agents  of 
Thedor  but  to  satisfy  the  final  stipulations  of  the  Polish 
Senate.  Besides  the  demand  for  a  certain  sum  of  money 
down,  which  would  have  been  conceded,  the  obstacles  to  a 
ratification  of  the  election  were  seemingly  trifling  ;  but  they 
were  insuperable.  Thedor  would  not  consent  to  be  crowned 
at  Krakow,  to  put  the  title  King  of  Poland  before  that  of 
Tzar  of  the  Russias,  nor  to  dally  in  any  way  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion.  Without  these  concessions  the  Poles 
refused  to  bestow  their  suffrages  on  the  Russian  prince,  and 
their  choice  finally  fell  on  Sigismund  Vasa,  whose  election 
brought  the  crowns  of  Poland  and  Sweden,  Moskva's  two 
hereditary  enemies,  into  the  same  family.  That  Godounov 
should  have  declined  to  bargain  further  with  the  Polish 
electors  on  behalf  of  Thedor  does  credit  to  his  foresieht  :  for 
the  Russian  sovereign  to  have  accepted  the  crown  under  the 
limitations  and  conditions  imposed  by  the  Senate  would  have 
been  to  surrender  at  the  outset  to  the  turbulence  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  western  Slavs,  and  possibly  to  weaken  his 
hold  upon  his  own  spell-bound  subjects.  He  would  have 
ruled  over  the  Polish  palatinates  as  nominally  as  Rudolf  over 
the  free  cities  of  Northern  Germany,  and  the  infusion  of  the 
ideas  of  the  western  commonwealth  into  Moskovite  minds 
would  have  been  pouring  new  wine  into  old  bottles  with  dis- 
astrous result. 

The  Regent,  disconcerted  by  the  submission  of  all  the 
parties  in  the  Diet  to  the  accession  of  the  Swedish  prince, 
managed  to  avert  a  possible  outbreak  of  hostilities  between 
the  countries  which  had  so  nearly  been  allied  by  compacting 
for  a  truce  of  fifteen  years. 

While  dealing  with  the  precarious  foreign  affairs  of  the 
country  and  superintending  the  domestic  administration, 
Godounov  had  to  fight  hard  to  maintain   his  own   position. 

S 


258  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Thedor  had  inherited  from  his  father,  if  nothing  else,  a 
weakness  for  all  that  appertained  to  religion,  and  the  greater 
part  of  his  existence  alternated  between  devotional  exercises 
and  the  safe  amusement  of  watching  bear-fights.  Over  a 
mind  so  constituted,  a  priest  of  high  position  would  naturally 
have  a  good  chance  of  obtaining  a  dominating  influence,  and 
the  Metropolitan  was  quite  willing  to  play  the  part  of 
another  Silvestr.  The  only  obstacle  to  this  ambition  was 
the  Tzar's  brother-in-law,  who  brooked  no  competitor  for  the 
tzarskie  favour.  Hence  between  Regent  and  Vladuika 
lurked  an  animosity  which  drove  the  latter  into  the  arms  of 
the  Shouyskie  party.  Thus  a  powerful  league  of  the  clergy, 
boyarin,  and  merchant  interests  (the  latter  were  hand  in 
glove  with  the  Shouyskie)  was  formed  in  Moskva  against 
the  Godounov  rule.  Boris  derived  his  power  in  the  first 
place  from  his  connection  with  the  Tzar  through  the  Tzaritza 
Irena,  and  it  was  the  aim  of  the  malcontents  to  break  this 
important  link  on  the  ground  of  the  latter's  alleged  sterility, 
and  to  wed  Thedor  instead  to  a  Mstislavskie  princess.  The 
Metropolitan  favoured  the  scheme — Ivan  the  Terrible  had 
evidently  stretched  the  consciences  of  his  clergy  on  the 
marriage  question  beyond  retraction — but  the  vigilance  of 
the  Regent  dragged  it  prematurely  to  light.  None  of  the 
conspirators  were  molested  for  their  share  in  the  intrigue, 
but  the  Mstislavskie  princess  was  compelled  to  become  an 
abiding  inmate  of  a  convent.  The  real  or  alleged  discovery 
of  a  plot  against  the  throne,  presumably,  since  some  of  the 
Nagoi  family  were  implicated,  in  favour  of  the  young 
Dimitri,  gave  an  excuse  for  the  long-deferred  vengeance  of 
Godounov.  Ivan  Shouyskie,  the  defender  of  Pskov,  was 
dispatched  to  Bielozero,  Andrei  Shouyskie  to  Kargopol  ; 
both,  it  was  said,  were  afterwards  strangled  in  prison. 
Thedor  Nagoi  and  six  of  his  companions  were  publicly 
executed,  an  example  meant,  no  doubt,  to  strike  terror  into 
the  disaffected  at  Ouglitch.  Batches  of  the  Mstislavskie 
were  forced  into  religious  houses,  and  many  other  boyarins 
were  exiled  to  various  parts  of  the  gosoudarstvo — some  to 
Sibiria,  the  first  detachment  of  a  long  procession  of  political 


I X  THE  GREA  T  BOYA RIN 


259 


offenders  which  has  never  since  ceased  to  wend  its  way  from 
Russia  into  the  "  land  of  the  long  nights,"  The  Metropolitan 
was  deposed  and  his  place  filled  by  lov,  Archbishop  of 
Rostov. 

Godounov  was  for  the  time  master  of  the  situation. 
His  enemies  were  either  dead,  or  deported,  or  devoted,  in 
various  monasteries  scattered  up  and  down  the  country,  to 
a  course  of  religious  seclusion,  if  not  of  blessed  meditation. 
Only  at  Ouglitch,  growing  up  among  the  Nagoi  colony,  was 
the  child  who  must  surely  one  day  exact  a  heavy  retribution 
from  the  man  whom  he  was  taught  to — omit  from  his  prayers. 
Unless  he  should  happen  meanwhile  to  cut  his  throat  in  a 
fit  of  epilepsy, 

A  renewal  of  the  war  with  Sweden  drew  together,  at  an 
opportune  moment,  the  discordant  forces  which  threatened 
at  times  to  dislocate  the  machinery  of  government.  The 
time-honoured  Moskovite  foreign  policy,  like  the  wolves' 
hunting  to  which  it  has  been  already  compared,  derived  its 
strength  from  its  patient  persistence,  rather  than  from  any 
brilliancy  of  rapid  conception  or  swift  action.  At  peace  for 
the  time  being  with  Poland,  and  not  anticipating  trouble 
from  the  Khan  of  the  Krim  Horde,  Godounov  took  up  the 
threads  which  had  dropped  from  the  nerveless  hands  of  the 
failing  Ivan,  and  returned  to  the  struggle  for  an  opening 
into  the  Baltic.  The  truce  with  Sweden  having  expired 
without  either  country  being  able  to  come  to  terms,  Thedor 
prepared,  in  January  1590,  to  lead  the  huge  army  which 
had  been  collected  from  all  quarters  of  his  dominions,  part 
of  the  way  at  least  towards  the  Estlandish  and  Finnish 
frontiers.  The  presence  of  the  sovereign  was  to  some  extent 
necessary  to  maintain  order  and  harmony  in  an  army  which 
included  among  its  leaders  a  Mstislavskie  (in  chief  com- 
mand), a  Godounov,  and  a  Romanov,  besides  other  jarring 
elements.  The  Tzar,  however,  did  not  venture  his  person 
farther  than  Novgorod,  from  which  point  the  Russian  host 
diverged  upon  its  double  destination,  one  body  marching 
across  the  frozen  Neva,  the  other  directing  its  course  towards 
the  disputed  fortresses  of  the  Ingermanland  province.      Yam 


26o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

was  carried  by  assault  and  a  force  of  20,000  Swedes  defeated 
outside  Narva,  which  place  was  then  invested.  To  save  this 
important  stronghold,  the  representatives  of  the  King  of 
Sweden  concluded  a  hasty  truce,  to  run  for  one  year,  ceding 
meanwhile  Ivangorod  and  Kopor'e  to  the  Tzar's  voevodas 
(25th  February).  This  sudden  forward  movement  on  ^ the 
part  of  Moskovy  aroused  the  alarm  and  suspicion  of  the 
Poles,  whose  young  king  especially  felt  bound  to  make  a 
diversion  on  behalf  of  Sweden  ;  hence  ominous  mutterings 
filtered  through  to  Moskva  from  Krakow,  and  the  Dniepr 
Kozaks  (who  had  been  organised  into  regiments  by  Stefan 
Batory)  began  to  commit  depredations  along  the  Lit'uanian 
border.  A  Polish  embassy  which  arrived  at  the  capital  in 
the  autumn,  after  adopting  a  somewhat  aggressive  tone, 
finally  renewed  the  truce  between  the  two  countries  for  a 
term  of  twelve  years.  The  Swedes  were  likely,  however,  to 
renew  the  struggle  in  the  north  in  the  coming  spring,  having 
refused  to  yield  to  the  Russian  demand  for  the  cession  of 
Narva  and  Korelia,  and  there  were  rumours  afloat  of  a 
simultaneous  outburst  of  hostilities  on  the  part  of  the 
treacherous  Krimskie  Tartars.  While  Moskva  was  thus 
threatened  with  a  double  attack,  a  mysterious  and  appalling 
1591  tragedy  had  happened  at  Ouglitch.  At  noon  on  the  15th 
of  May  the  inhabitants,  alarmed  by  the  furious  beating  of 
the  bell  at  the  Nagoi  Palace,  rushed  into  the  court  to  find 
the  Tzarevitch  Dimitri  with  a  gaping  wound  across  his 
throat,  and  his  mother  and  some  servants  shrieking  over  his 
yet  warm  corpse.  The  palace  and  town  had  been  for  some 
time  haunted  and  overlooked  by  agents  of  the  Regent,  who 
naturally  wished  to  keep  himself  informed  as  to  the  course 
of  events  in  this  hotbed  of  sedition  and  intrigue  ;  naturally 
also  the  popular  imagination  fastened  the  presumed  murder 
on  these  Godounovskie  emissaries,  who  were  seized  and 
put  to  death,  together  with  their  servants  and  one  or  two 
suspected  citizens  and  a  woman  "  who  went  often  to  the 
palace ; "  in  all  some  dozen  persons.  The  aggrieved  and 
excited  populace  easily  persuaded  themselves  that  Boris 
Godounov    had    planned    and    caused    to   be   executed    this 


IX  THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  261 


catastrophe,  and  many  historians  have  unreservedly  endorsed 
their  judgment,  though,  apart  from  the  fact  that  Dimitri's 
death  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  a  joyful  relief  to 
the  Regent,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  evidence  there  is  to 
connect  him  with  the  crime.  The  murder  of  a  Tzarevitch, 
the  last  heir  in  the  direct  Moskovite  line  of  the  holy  House 
of  Rurikovitch,  was  not  an  event  which  could  be  passed 
over  without  inquiry,  even  if  the  alleged  instigator  were  a 
boyarin  in  high  Court  favour  ;  an  investigation  was  necessary 
in  any  case,  but  it  is  at  least  worthy  of  notice  that  the  man 
selected  to  preside  over  the  collection  of  evidence  and  to  sift 
the  whole  matter  at  the  place  where  it  occurred  was  Vasili 
Shouyskie,  brother  to  the  princes  of  that  family  who  had 
suffered  imprisonment  and  death  at  the  hands  of  Godounov. 
The  report  drawn  up  by  this  kniaz,  who  could  scarcely  be 
otherwise  than  the  enemy  of  the  man  whom  the  popular 
voice  condemned,  entirely  exonerated  both  the  Regent  and 
his  supposed  agents,  and  declared  the  Tzarevitch  to  have 
killed  himself  in  a  fit  of  epilepsy,  to  which  he  was  subject. 
The  subsequent  massacre  was  laid  to  the  charge  of  the 
Nagois.  The  theory  put  forward  by  Kostomarov  that 
Shouyskie,  "  a  cunning  and  pliant  man,"  conducted  the  in- 
vestigation and  distorted  the  evidence  in  a  manner  which 
would  win  him  the  favour  of  Godounov  in  order  to  avoid 
unpleasant  consequences  to  himself,  seems  under  the  circum- 
stances scarcely  plausible.  The  death  of  Dimitri  left  Boris 
more  or  less  in  the  position  of  a  claimant  to  the  throne  of 
the  Russias,  and  he  would  be  more  than  ever  an  object  of 
jealousy  and  suspicion  to  the  princely  families  who  had  the 
blood  of  Rurik  or  Gedimin  in  their  veins.  Hence  Shouy- 
skie, however  guarded  in  the  language  of  the  report  he  was 
called  upon  to  make,  would  hardly  go  out  of  his  way  to  bias 
the  judgment  of  Court  and  country  in  favour  of  his  enemy 
and  rival.  Between  the  verdict  of  the  men  who  had  care- 
fully examined  the  evidence  relating  to  the  affair  and  the 
wild  accusations  of  an  angry  and  disaffected  people  there 
was  a  wide  divergence.  Historians  have  for  the  most  part 
endorsed   the  latter.      Whatever  the  truth   of  the  matter,  a 


262  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

murderous  retribution  was  meted  out  to  the  people  of  Oug- 
litch  for  the  slaughter  of  the  Regent's  agents  ;  many  of  the 
Nagois  were  exiled  or  imprisoned,  and  Dimitri's  mother  was 
forced  to  enter  a  convent,  while  numbers  of  the  inhabitants 
were  executed  or  sent  beyond  the  Ourals.  Ouglitch  was 
reduced  almost  to  a  desert.  The  same  summer  which  wit- 
nessed the  death  of  Dimitri  Ivanovitch  saw  Khan  Kazi-Girei 
stealing  out  of  the  sun-parched  steppes  towards  Moskva  at 
the  head  of  a  large  and  rapidly-moving  army.  The  best 
troops  of  Moskovy  were  far  away  in  the  north,  watching  the 
movements  of  the  Swedish  generals  ;  others  had  to  be 
brought  in  all  haste  from  the  encampments  along  the  Oka 
to  defend  the  capital  from  this  sudden,  if  not  altogether 
unexpected  attack.  The  slobodas  surrounding  the  city  were 
hurriedly  fortified  and  the  outlying  monasteries  transformed 
into  fortresses.  The  Tzar,  contrary  to  precedent,  remained 
at  the  Kreml,  and  was  witness  of  the  magnificent  battle 
which  ensued  under  the  walls  of  Moskva,  and  which  recalled, 
while  it  lasted,  the  classic  struggles  on  the  plains  of  Troy. 
The  defence  was  superintended  by  kniaz  Thedor  Mstislavskie 
and  Godounov,  the  latter  of  whom  understood  the  difficult 
science  of  working  in  harmony  with  men  who  were  his 
4th  July  personal  enemies.  Although  the  issue  of  the  day's  strife 
1591  was  not  of  a  decisive  nature,  the  Khan  had  no  stomach  for 
further  fighting,  and  fled  precipitately  back  to  his  own 
country,  arriving  at  Baktchisarai  with  scarcely  a  third  of  his 
army.  The  ignominious  failure  of  this  invasion  checked  any 
disposition  which  Sigismund  may  have  had  for  annulling  the 
truce  with  the  Tzar  of  Moskovy,  whose  voevodas  were  now 
free  to  give  their  undivided  attention  to  the  scrambling 
hostilities  which  had  broken  out  in  Finland  and  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  White  Sea.  The  war  dragged  on  in 
these  wild  and  bitter  regions  without  any  very  decisive 
action  enlivening  the  general  torpidity  of  its  course ;  the 
failing  health  of  King  John  of  Sweden  made  him  anxious 
to  obtain  at  least  a  suspension  of  arms,  and  negotiations 
were  set  on  foot  for  that  purpose  previous  to  his  death 
(November  1592),  which  resulted  in  the  conclusion  of  a  two 


IX 


THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  263 


years'  truce  (each  side  to  retain  what  it  then  held)  in 
January  1593.  The  external  peace  which  Russia  for  the 
moment  enjoyed  was  clouded  by  the  apprehension  which 
was  naturally  felt  at  the  accession  of  Sigismund  Vasa  to  his 
father's  kingdom,  an  event  which  bound  Poland  and  Sweden 
into  a  dual  monarchy  and  made  the  acquisition  of  a  Baltic 
outlet  more  than  ever  a  difficult  task  for  Moskovite  state- 
craft. The  apprehension  was,  however,  soon  allayed.  The 
union  of  crowns  was  by  no  means  followed  by  a  union  of 
hearts,  and  the  close  relationship  into  which  the  two  king- 
doms— one  aggressively  Lutheran,  the  other  preponderatingly 
Catholic — were  drawn  only  served  to  bring  to  the  surface 
the  animosities  of  race  and  creed  which  existed  between 
them.  Sigismund,  who  was  Catholic  by  religion  and  more 
or  less  Polish  in  his  sympathies,  had  a  powerful  Lutheran 
rival  in  his  Uncle  Karl,  Duke  of  Sudermanland,  and  the 
Skandinavian  kingdom  was  more  likely  to  be  involved  in  a 
civil  war  than  to  fight  hand  in  hand  with  Poland  against 
Russia.  Under  these  circumstances  the  truce  between 
Sweden  and  Moskovy  was  supplemented  (i8th  May  1595) 
by  an  "eternal  peace,"  the  former  power  ceding,  besides 
Yam,  Ivangorod,  and  Kopor'e,  Korelia  with  the  town  of 
Keksholm.^  It  was  probably  the  clearing  of  the  atmosphere 
in  the  north  which  emboldened  Godounov,  while  lulling  the 
Ottoman  Court  with  proffers  of  friendship,  to  send  a  sub- 
stantial contribution  to  Kaiser  Rudolf  in  furtherance  of  the 
half-hearted  crusade  by  which  he  was  attempting  to  dislodge 
the  Turks  from  Hungary.  A  magnificent  consignment  of 
the  rich  fur-products  of  the  Sibirian  forests, — sable,  marten, 
beaver,  black  fox,  and  other  skins,  in  scores  of  thousands, 
valued  at  44,000  roubles, — was  spread  out  in  twenty  rooms 
of  the  imperial  palace  at  Prague  for  the  edification  and 
astonishment  of  the  courtiers  and  merchants  of  the  old 
Bohemian  city  (1595).  The  inevitable  clashing  of  the 
Ottoman  and  Russian  powers,  only  deferred  on  account  of 
the  manifold  embarrassments  of  both,  made  it  desirable  that 
Moskva    should    be    no    longer   dependent    in    ecclesiastical 

1  S.  Solov'ev,  Karamzin. 


264  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

matters  on  the  Turk-tolerated   Patriarch  at   Constantinople, 
and  it  was  perhaps   partly  on   this  account,  partly  with  the 
view  of  gratifying  the   Russian   clergy  and  his  partisan,  the 
Metropolitan,  lov,  that  Godounov  in  i  589  secured  the  promo- 
tion  of  the  Primate  to  the  office  of  Patriarch  of  Moskva, 
with    four    Metropolitans    (Novgorod,    Kazan,    Rostov,    and 
Kroutitsk)  under  him.      A  more  lastingly  important  stroke 
of  internal   administration,  effected  by  the    Regent   at    this 
time,  also  fell  in   with  his  private  ends  in  addition  to  safe- 
guarding the  interests  of  the  State.      This  was  the  abolition 
of  the  "  Ur'ev  den,"  or  S.  George's  day,  on  which  the  peasants 
had  been  wont  to  decide  for  the   ensuing  year  whether  they 
would  remain  with  their  present  masters,  or  migrate,  literally, 
to    fresh    fields    and    pastures    new.       This    right   of  annual 
"betterment"  had   lately  shown  a  tendency  to  work  in  one 
direction  ;  the  opening  up  of  Sibiria  and  the  greater  security 
from  Tartar  raids  which  the  agriculturalist  of  the  south  of 
Russia  now  enjoyed  drew   the    peasants  in   steady  streams 
from  their  accustomed  grounds,  and  the  small   proprietors, 
the  military  backbone  of  the  gosoudarstvo,  who  were  unable 
to  offer  the  privileges  and  immunities  which  the  richer  land- 
owners held  forth,  found  their  estates  gradually  drained  of 
the   labour   which    alone    made    them    valuable.      Godounov 
grappled  boldly  with  the  situation  ;   he  issued  an  edict  which 
forbade  the  serf  to  change  his  master,  and  thus  by  one  stroke 
bound  the  peasant  to  the  soil  and  the  grateful  small  land- 
owner to  his  party. 

The  dynastic  hopes  of  the  house  of  Moskva  had  been 
fluttered  in  1592  by  a  report  that  the  Tzaritza  was  in  a 
condition  which  might  well  be  termed  interesting,  since  the 
birth  of  an  heir  was  of  such  vital  importance  to  Russia  ; 
Irena  did  indeed  bring  forth  a  daughter,  who  was  baptized 
with  the  name  Theodosia,  and  died.  This  was  the  last 
expiring  flicker  of  the  paling  torch  of  the  Ivanovitch  dynasty. 
On  the  7th  of  January  1598  Thedor  himself  expired,  leaving 
his  vacant  throne  somewhat  vaguely  at  the  disposal  of  his 
widow,  the  Patriarch,  the  Regent,  and  Thedor  Romanov. 
"  In  the  person  of  this  vague  and  virtuous  sovereign,"  sums 


IX 


THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  265 


up  a  French  historian,  "the  race  of  bloody  and  violent  men 
of  prey  who  had  created  Russia  was  extinguished."  ^  For 
the  first  time  in  her  political  history  Russia  was  fronted 
with  an  interregnum.  The  widowed  Tzaritza,  the  only  re- 
maining representative  of  the  sovereign  authority  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people,  made  the  void  still  more  pronounced  by 
retiring  with  her  brother  into  the  New  Monastery  of  the 
Virgin,  which  hallowed  retreat  promptly  became  the  centre 
of  anxious  solicitations  and  political  manoeuvrings.  As 
Irena  Godounov  would  do  nothing  to  remove  the  deadlock, 
Boris  Godounov  became  indispensable,  and  the  Patriarch, 
with  the  assent  of  the  principal  citizens,  offered  him  the 
crown  of  Monomachus  and,  as  far  as  he  was  able  to  speak 
with  authority,  the  sovereignty  of  the  Russias.  Boris  wisely 
deferred  the  choice  of  a  Tzar  to  the  decision  of  a  representa- 
tive gathering  of  the  Moskovite  States,  a  step  which,  while 
it  gave  his  enemies  a  longer  time  to  develop  their  opposition, 
would  place  his  election,  if  carried,  on  a  surer  foundation. 
The  Sobor  which  assembled  at  the  capital  in  the  month  of 
February  was  composed  of  474  members,  of  which  99  were 
clergy,  272  of  the  boyarin  and  landowner  class  (of  which 
119  were  small  proprietors),  and  the  remainder  starostas, 
deputies  from  the  provincial  towns,  and  representatives  of 
the  merchant  bodies."  With  the  clergy  and  small  proprietors 
the  Godounov  interest  was  predominant,  and  men  of  all 
sections  were  conversant  with  the  ability  and  energy  which 
the  Regent  had  displayed  in  dealing  with  the  foreign  affairs 
of  the  country,  left  by  Ivan  in  such  unpromising  plight. 
There  were  many  boyarins  whose  pedigrees  gave  them  a 
more  legitimate  claim  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Rurik,  but 
none  who  inspired  such  confidence  as  did  Godounov.  The 
latter  was  unanimously  elected  to  the  sovereignty,  and  only 
stimulated  the  popular  voice  by  affecting  to  hold  back  from 
the  proffered  dignity.  On  the  21st  of  February,  amid  the  1598 
striking  of  the  5000  bells  of  Moskva's  many  churches,  the 
Patriarch  went  forth  at  the  head  of  his  clergy,  followed  by 
the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  and   bearing 

^  Rambaud.  2  3.  Solov'ev,  Kostomarov. 


266  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


the  ikon  of  the  Mother  of  God  of  Vladimir,  towards  the 
monastery  of  the  Virgin  ;  Godounov  met  this  imposing 
outpour  with  another  procession,  bearing  the  less  celebrated 
but  equally  adorable  Mother  of  God  of  Smolensk.  Satisfied 
of  the  solidity  of  his  call  to  the  throne,  he  at  length  put 
aside  his  hesitation  and  allowed  himself  to  be  proclaimed 
Gosoudar  and  Tzar  of  all  the  Russias.  In  effect  nothing 
was  changed,  except  that  he  ruled  in  name  what  he  had 
already  ruled  in  fact  ;  on  the  other  hand,  however,  if  he 
exchanged  the  position  of  Vremenszhik  for  that  of  sovereign, 
he  lost  the  authority  which  even  the  weak  Thedor  had  been 
able  to  impart  to  him — the  authority  of  a  time-honoured 
"  legend."  With  the  Russians  legend  and  ideal  counted  for 
more  than  an  apprenticeship  of  capable  public  service,  and 
greater  homage  was  paid  to  an  Orthodox  sovereign  who  hid 
from  the  enemy  under  a  haystack  than  to  a  voevoda  who 
died  fighting  superbly  for  his  country.  Crueller  tortures 
were  inflicted  upon  brave  and  blameless  men  in  their  midst 
than  any  for  which  sixty  generations  of  Jews  were  held 
accursed,  yet  it  was  the  inflictor  and  not  the  victim  who  was 
accounted  holy,  and  worthy  to  sleep  beneath  the  wings  of 
the  archangels.  Boris,  with  all  his  record  of  past  services 
and  recommendation  of  present  ability,  with  all  his  benevol- 
ence and  dexterity,  could  count  on  nothing  more  than  the 
makeshift  loyalty  of  his  subjects. 

His  first  action  after  his  election,  before  even  his  corona- 
tion had  taken  place,  was  one  which  bespoke  alike  vigour 
and  calculation.  A  rumour,  possibly  not  without  some 
foundation,  but  such  as  was  current  at  Moskva  every 
summer,  credited  the  Krim  Khan  with  designs  for  an  im- 
mediate invasion  of  Russian  territory.  Boris  did  not  wait 
for  more  exact  information,  but  forthwith  assembled  from 
all  parts  of  the  gosoudarstvo  a  splendidly  equipped  arm>' 
which  was  estimated  at  500,000  men.  This  demonstration 
of  potential  fighting  power  and  resource  not  only  awed  the 
Khan  into  good  behaviour,  but  served  as  a  hint  to  the 
Swedes  and  Poles  that  the  new  sovereign  of  Russia,  albeit 
of   comparatively   humble   origin,    was    not    a    factor   to   be 


IX  THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  267 

despised  in  the  affairs  of  North-eastern  Europe  ;  it  fulfilled 
too  another  purpose,  that  of  bringing  the  voevodas,  boyarins, 
Tartar  vassals,  and  Kozak  hetmans  from  distant  parts  of 
the  realm  into  immediate  contact  with  their  new  ruler. 
The  development  of  the  quarrel  between  Sigismund  and  his 
uncle  Karl,  which  gradually  became  a  struggle  between 
Poland  and  Sweden,  freed  Moskovy  from  the  danger  of 
attack  from  either  power,  and  had  Boris  been  able  to  wholly 
shake  off  the  cautious  traditions  of  his  predecessors  and 
enter  into  aggressive  alliance  with  one  or  other  of  the 
combatants,  Riga  or  Revel  might  have  fallen  into  his 
hands  and  the  coveted  eye-hole  into  Europe  have  been 
secured.  The  Tzar,  however,  clung  too  faithfully  to  the  old 
policy  which  had  borne  so  little  fruit.  Nothing  but  sheer 
force  would  move  the  Swedes  out  of  Estland  or  the  Poles 
out  of  Livland,  and  nothing  short  of  compulsion  would  make 
the  inhabitants  of  these  provinces  receive  the  Russians  as 
saviours  ;  yet  the  same  blind  of  a  vassal  kinglet  which  had 
failed  disastrously  in  the  case  of  Magnus  was  tried  again, 
with  a  Swedish  prince,  Gustav  (son  of  the  late  Erik  XIV.), 
as  its  figure-head.  Gustav  created  no  enthusiasm  among 
the  Livlanders — who  were  not  in  a  position  indeed  to  show 
any — and  ended  by  inspiring  disgust  in  his  patrons  at 
Moskva.  It  is  probable  that  Boris  was  merely  staying  his 
hand  while  Poles  and  Swedes  fought  out  their  domestic 
quarrels,  and  hoped  to  profit  by  the  exhaustion  which  such 
conflict  must  necessarily  entail  by  plundering  both  parties. 
The  opportunity  never  came.  Little  by  little  the  sovereign 
became  aware  that  he  was  scarcely  possessed  of  the  love  of 
the  people  for  whom  he  had  done  so  much  ;  the  clergy  were 
offended  at  his  suggestion  of  founding  a  university,  the 
citizens  were  aggrieved  that  he  introduced  skilled  foreigners, 
who  were  so  badly  needed  to  reorganise  the  sciences  and 
arts  of  the  country,  all  classes  were  scandalised  because  he 
shaved  off  his  beard.  A  terrible  famine,  caused  by  inclement 
weather  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1601,  brought  out  the 
good  qualities  of  the  Tzar,  who  disbursed  immense  sums 
ungrudgingly  among  the  starving  poor,  and   grappled  vigor- 


268  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

ously  and  with  partial  success  against  the  prevailing  scarcity. 
The  people,  however,  saw  in  the  calamity  only  the  wrath  of 
God  against  a  prince  who  had  caused  sacred  blood  to  be 
shed  ;  with  their  eyes  strained  upwards  to  the  frescoed  roofs 
of  their  churches  they  missed  the  human  endeavour  and  the 
open-hearted  charity  which  was  striving  to  alleviate  their 
misfortunes.  Portents  of  disaster  and  bodings  of  coming 
trouble  succeeded  the  famine,  for  the  most  part  of  a  very 
understandable  nature.  Beasts  of  the  chase  became  scarce 
in  the  forests,  packs  of  famished  dogs  and  wolves  roamed 
round  the  villages,  eagles  screamed  over  Moskva,  and  black 
foxes  were  caught  about  the  city,  in  addition  to  which, 
unknown  birds  and  beasts,  strange  and  therefore  marvellous, 
were  observed  throughout  the  country.  As  there  had  been 
a  general  scarcity  of  vegetation,  and  as  the  towns  were 
honeycombed  by  the  hastily-dug  graves  of  those  who  had 
died  of  want — numbering  some  hundreds  of  thousands  — 
this  sudden  invasion  of  the  forest-folk  was  not  inexplicable. 
It  was  also  said  that  women  and  animals  gave  birth  to 
monsters  ;  certainly  about  this  time  rumour  gave  birth  to 
extraordinary  reports,  of  more  disquieting  omen  than  any 
of  the  rest,  that  Dimitri  Ivanovitch  had  survived  the  evil 
designs  of  his  would-be  murderers  and  was  yet  alive.  The 
people  who  had  credited  an  irritated  Deity  with  exacting 
hecatombs  of  victims  for  the  foul  death  of  a  Tzarevitch,  were 
equally  prone  to  believe  that  the  Tzarevitch  was  not  dead, 
and  it  only  remained  for  the  rumour  to  take  concrete  shape 
for  Boris's  throne  to  be  seriously  imperilled.  With  the 
taint  of  disaffection  visible  around  him,  his  government 
began  to  take  a  harsher  tone.  Although  never  verging  upon 
the  savagery  of  the  later  Moskovite  sovereigns,  the  clemency 
of  the  first  years  of  his  reign  was  laid  aside  as  useless. 
Bogdan  Bielskie,  who  had  earned  the  hatred  of  the  citizens 
in  the  days  of  the  Terrible,  now  incurred  the  displeasure  of 
Boris  by  alleged  contumacy  ;  it  was  said  that  his  beard  was 
plucked  piecemeal  from  his  chin  by  the  Tzar's  orders,  but 
beyond  this  he  was  only  banished  to  another  district  more 
remote  than  the  one  he  had  formerly  administered.      More 


IX  THE  GREAT  BOYARIN  269 

thorough  was  the  swoop  upon  the  Romanov  family  ;  the 
five  sons  of  the  late  member  of  Thedor's  Douma,  Nikita 
Romanov,  stood  high  in  the  public  esteem,  and  stood  also 
very  near  the  throne.  An  elected  prince  had  some  cause  to 
fear  the  competition  of  such  a  powerful  and  popular  family, 
albeit  they  were  not  of  Rurikovitch  blood.  The  charge 
which  was  suddenly  brought  against  them,  of  a  design  to 
remove  the  sovereign  by  means  of  poison,  was  probably  one 
of  those  whispered  calumnies  which  bred  freely  in  the  half- 
Asiatic,  wholly  mediaeval  atmosphere  of  Moskva.  It  was 
nevertheless  a  convenient  excuse  for  destroying  the  influence 
of  this  dangerous  party  ;  the  head  of  the  house,  Thedor, 
was  constrained  to  enter  a  monastery,  where,  as  the  monk 
Filarete,  he  seemed  safely  out  of  the  way.  The  other 
brothers  underwent  more  or  less  rigorous  imprisonment 
(the  severities  of  which  were  eventually  relaxed),  while  a 
crowd  of  allied  or  sympathetic  boyarins  were  ordered  into 
captivity  or  received  governorships  in  remote  parts  of  the 
country.  No  blood  was  spilt  except  incidentally  that  of 
serfs  and  servants,  tortured  to  disclose  incriminating  in- 
formation concerning  their  masters.  That  the  Tzar,  who 
had  received  his  earliest  impressions  at  the  Court  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  did  not  act  more  in  the  spirit  of  his  times  is 
a  circumstance  which  may  stand  to  his  credit,  especially 
when  regard  is  had  to  the  influences  which  surrounded  him. 
The  Moskva  of  those  days  was  an  environment  which  in 
itself  propagated  monstrous  and  reactionary  ideas.  Here 
were  to  be  seen  on  every  hand  wretched  hovels,  "  dwelling- 
places  for  human  beings,"  dark  suspicion-speaking  bazaars, 
crowded  rookeries  of  cramped  caravansaries,  wide  open 
spaces,  bleak  and  untenanted,  chill  and  massive  boyarin 
palaces,  weird  and  awesome  temples  ;  and  in  the  Kreml 
itself  "  violent  juxtaposition  of  the  German  Gothic  style  with 
those  of  India,  of  Byzantium,  of  Italy — the  same  tangle  of 
edifices,  packed  one  within  another  like  a  Chinese  puzzle  ; 
the  same  strange  wild  orgy  of  decoration,  of  form,  of  colour  ; 
a  delirium  and  fever,  a  veritable  surfeit  of  plastic  fancy. 
Small     rooms,    surbased    vaulted     roofs,    gloomy    corridors, 


270 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap,  ix 


lamps  twinkling  out  of  the  darkness,  on  the  walls  the  lurid 
<.low  of  mingled  ochres  and  vermilions,  iron  bars  to  every 
window,  armed  men  at  every  door  ;  a  swarming  population 
of  monks  and  warriors  everywhere."  ^  Such  was  the  capital 
of  Russia  in  the  last  days  of  the  Rurikovitch  dynasty  ;  such 
it  remained  throughout  the  seventeenth  century. 

1  K.  Waliszevvski,  Peter  the  Great. 


SLOB 

OF  W'^ 


at  the  close  of  the  Sixteenth 


1.  Cathedral  of  Mikhail  the  Archangel. 

2.  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption  (Ouspefiskt). 

3.  Spasskie  (Saviour)  gate. 

4.  Nikolai  gate. 

5.  Neglina  gate. 

6.  Borovitzkie  gate. 

7.  The  Red  Place. 

8-8.  Markets  and  Bazaars. 


River  gate. 
Strietenskie  gate. 
Tverskie  gate. 
Nikolskie  gate. 
Arbatskie  gate. 
Tchertol'skie  gale. 
15.  Swannery. 


9- 
10 
II. 

12- 

13- 
14 


CHAPTER    X 

THE    PHANTOM    TZAR 

In  all  historical  ages  men  have  been  found  ready  to  believe 
in  the  pretensions  of  the  personators  who  seem  to  spring  up 
as  the  natural  aftermath  of  a  vanished  dynasty  or  a  quenched 
idol  ;  pre-eminently  prone  to  be  deluded  by  such  deceptions 
were  the  Russians  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
Inured  by  the  exactions  of  their  religion  to  an  unquestion- 
ing faith  in  the  supernatural,  incapable  from  their  teaching, 
as  much  as  from  their  want  of  teaching,  of  forming  a  critical 
opinion  upon  a  matter  which  admitted  of  doubt,  and  isolated 
from  their  own  communities  and  from  the  sources  of  reliable 
information  by  vast  distances  and  bad  roads,  they  afforded 
a  fit  germinating  bed  for  rumours  and  frauds  of  the  flimsiest 
nature.  Without  proof  many  of  them  had  accepted  the 
theory  that  Boris  Godounov  was  responsible  for  the  murder 
of  Dimitri  Ivanovitch  ;  equally  without  proof  they  were 
ready  to  credit  the  reports  which  began  to  fly  about  the 
country  during  the  winter  of  1603- 1604  to  the  effect  that 
the  long-mourned  Tzarevitch  was  alive  and  gathering  an 
army  beyond  the  Lit'uanian  border.  The  explanation  which 
accompanied  this  story  was  that  Dimitri  had  been  smuggled 
away  from  his  would-be  assassins  at  Ouglitch  and  another 
child  had  been  killed  in  his  stead.  The  fact  that  his  mother 
and  nurse  had  shrieked  and  swooned  over  his  corpse,  and 
that  his  relatives  and  the  townsfolk  who  knew  him  well  had 
had  ample  opportunity  to  detect  any  substitution  while  the 
body  lay  in  state  awaiting  Shouyskie's  inquest,  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  taken  into  consideration.      It  was  evident,  from 


272  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

the  accumulating  reports  that  kept  pouring  in,  that  there 
was  someone  in  Lit'uania,  a  tangible  being,  who  claimed  to 
be  the  veritable  Dimitri,  and  it  was  also  evident  that  the 
King  of  Poland  and  numbers  of  the  Russ-Lit'uanian  princes 
believed  in  his  identity — or  professed  to. 

The  generally  accepted  theory  among  Russian  historians 
as  to  the  true  personality  of  this  pretended  Ivanovitch  is 
that  he  was  one  Grigorie  Otrepiev,  an  enterprising  monk, 
who  had  thrown  off  his  frock  to  live  a  life  of  liberty  among 
the  western  Kozaks,  Amid  the  vicissitudes  of  a  self-seeking 
career,  both  before  and  after  quitting  the  cloister,  the  idea  of 
impersonating  the  dead  Tzarevitch  seems  to  have  cropped 
up  from  time  to  time,  and  finally,  having  entered  the  service 
of  a  Lit'uanian  boyarin,  the  adventurer,  on  the  pretence  of 
mortal  sickness,  announced  to  a  priest  his  identity  with 
Dimitri.  The  chief  evidence  in  support  of  his  story  was  the 
discovery  of  a  jewelled  cross  on  his  person,  a  clue  which 
might  have  convicted  him  of  sacrilegious  pilfering  as  con- 
vincingly as  of  royal  parentage.  His  "  discoverers,"  however, 
needed  little  convincing  ;  the  King  of  Poland,  to  whom  he 
was  exhibited  after  a  somewhat  rapid  recovery,  welcomed 
him  as  a  useful  weapon  of  offence  against  Boris  ;  the  Jesuits 
saw  in  him  an  instrument  for  the  advancement  of  their 
Church  ;  and  the  banished  and  disgraced  Russians  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact  hailed  him  as  the  possible  means  of 
restoring  them  to  the  state  from  which  they  had  fallen. 
Kostomarov,  in  an  exhaustive  monograph  on  the  subject, 
throws  doubt  on  the  identity  of  the  false  Dimitri  with  the 
somewhat  nebulous  monk  Otrepiev,  and  inclines  to  the  belief 
that  the  pretender,  whoever  he  was,  was  himself  convinced 
of  his  veritable  tzarskie  descent.^ 

Whatever  the  origin  and  past  career  of  this  apparition, 
he  succeeded  in  the  first  duty  of  an  impostor,  which  is  to 
impose.  The  personal  resemblance  which  he  bore  to  the 
family  to  which  he  claimed  to  belong  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  very  striking  ;  the  medals  and  coins  afterwards 
struck   for  him  give  his  presentment    as    that  of  a    coarse- 

1   Kto  btdl pervie  Ljhedimitrie  ?  S.  Petersburg,  1864. 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  273 

featured  thick-set  man,  with  a  heavy  lower-jaw,  recalling  a 
Habsburg  rather  than  a  Rurikovitch  type.^  But  with  a 
widely  scattered  population  like  that  of  Russia,  rumour, 
assertion,  and  hearsay  information  weighed  more  than  actual 
facts  ;  the  bulk  of  the  people  may  not  have  heen  convinced, 
but  many  of  them  were  ready  to  give  the  Pretender  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt.  Besides  the  unofficial  but  more  or 
less  open  support  which  he  received  from  the  Poles,  the 
restless  or  uneasy  spirits  on  the  Russian  side  of  the  border 
hastened  to  join  his  standard.  The  Don  Kozaks,  impatient 
of  the  control  of  Boris's  strong  hand,  sped  gleefully  to  join 
a  leader  in  whose  ranks  were  already  gathered  numbers  of 
their  fellow-freebooters  from  the  Dniepr.  The  Tzar  dis- 
played a  calmness  which  perhaps  he  did  not  feel,  and  con- 
tented himself  at  first  with  an  expostulatory  message  to  the 
King  of  Poland,  and  an  address,  signed  by  the  Patriarch  and 
all  the  bishops,  to  their  fellow-clergy  in  Lit'uania,  counselling 
them  to  withhold  their  allegiance  from  the  unfrocked  monk 
who  was  masquerading  as  a  Tzarevitch.  While  a  cross- 
current of  proclamations  was  being  directed  from  Moskva 
into  Lit'uania  and  from  the  grand  duchy  into  White  Russia, 
the  adventurer  was  preparing  for  bolder  measures.  Though 
Sigismund  would  not  openly  avow  him,  his  cause  had  been 
warmly  taken  up  by  Urii  Mnishek,  Palatine  of  Sendomir, 
who  supported  him  with  men  and  money,  and  promised 
him,  moreover,  the  hand  of  his  daughter  Marina.  Boris's 
attitude  of  scornful  indifference  had  left  the  border  pro- 
vince of  Sieverski  more  or  less  open  to  an  invasion,  and 
in  October  the  "  Ljhedimitri  "  (false-Dimitri)  crossed  with  1604 
his  little  army  into  Moskovite  territory.  His  audacity  was 
rewarded  with  a  large  measure  of  success.  The  frontier 
town  of  Moravsk  opened  its  gates  to  the  Pretender,  and 
the  ancient  city  of  Tchernigov  followed  the  example. 
Novgorod  Sieverski,  held  for  Boris  by  Petr  Basmanov  (son 
of  that  angel-faced  Thedor  who  came  to  such  a  miserable 
end  in  the  days  of  Ivan),  administered  a  timely  check  to  the 

^  A.  Karzinkina,  0  medalyakh  Tzarya  Dimitriya  loannovitcha  {LJhedimitriya 
I.)     Moskva,  1889. 

T 


274  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

invader's    progress,    but     Poutivl    and     other     neighbouring 
towns  went  over  to  the  impostor's  cause.      The  Tzar  set  to 
work  in  earnest  to  stamp  out  the  treason  which  had  gained 
such  an  advantageous  start,  but  the  armed  men  who  had 
sprung  up  at  his  summons  to  combat  the  Tartar  Khan  did 
not  gather  in  such  numbers  to  march  against  the  soi-disant 
Tzarevitch.      Nor   was    the    sovereign    sure    of   the  fidelity 
either  of  the  troops  raised  or  of  the  voevodas  who  were  to 
command  them.     Gladly  would  he  have  seen  Basmanov,  the 
man  of  his  heart,  who  had  already  stood  "  among  innumer- 
able false,  unmoved,"  at  the  head  of  the  tzarskie  forces,  but 
the    exigencies    of   his   statecraft    required    that   he   should 
employ    the     old     family    chiefs    on     this    critical     service. 
Accordingly  kniaz  Mstislavskie  and  kniaz  Vasili  Shouyskie 
1604-5  were  entrusted  with  the  direction  of  a  winter  campaign   in 
the   Sieverski   Oukrain,  which    resulted   in    the    Ljhedimitri 
being  driven  out  of  the  open  field  and  obliged  to  take  refuge 
in    Poutivl.      Deserted    by  the    Palatine   of    Sendomir   and 
most  of  the  Poles,  and  unable  to  count  even  on  the  con- 
tinued adherence  of  the   Kozaks,  the  bold  disputer  of  the 
throne   of  Moskva  was  indeed    in  desperate   circumstances. 
But   the  very  despair  which   animated   his    followers    made 
them    formidable    opponents    to    the    Tzar's    troops,   whose 
leaders  were  either  incapable  of  following  up  their  success 
or  unwilling   to   do   so.      Instead   of   making  a  determined 
attack  on   Poutivl   and  securing  the  impostor's  person,  they 
centred   their  efforts  on  the  siege  of  Kromi,  a  gorodok  held 
by  a  small  Kozak  garrison.      The  satisfaction  felt  at  Moskva 
at     the     first     successes     of   the    tzarskie     arms     gradually 
evaporated  as  the  weeks  dragged  on  without  result,  and  men 
began  to  speak  significantly  of  the  marvellous  escapes  and 
invincible  tenacity  of  the  man  who  claimed  to  be   Dimitri. 
That  the  pretender  had  many  adherents  in  the  capital  itself 
was    becoming     evident,    and     Boris     is     credited     by    the 
chroniclers   with    having  cut  off  the  tongues  of  some  who 
were  indiscreet  enough  to  voice  their  sentiments  ;  a  proceed- 
ing which,  though  out  of  keeping  with  the  Tzar's  general 
methods,  was  too  thoroughly  akin  to  Moskovite  traditions  to 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  275 

be  unhesitatingly  set  down  as  fable.  Boris  was,  however, 
wise  enough  to  see  that  he  must  stand  or  fall  by  Russian 
disposition  alone,  and  the  loyal  offer  of  assistance  made  him 
by  the  Duke  of  Sudermanland,  now  King  of  Sweden,  was 
declined.  In  possession  of  the  throne  and  the  immense 
treasure  appertaining  thereto,  enjoying  the  support  of  the 
Hierarchy,  feared,  if  not  loved,  by  the  boyarins  and  voevodas, 
and  held  in  esteem  by  the  Courts  of  Austria,  England,  and 
Sweden,  the  Godounov  Tzar  might  well  have  stood  his 
ground  against  the  doubtful  rival  whom  he  had  hemmed 
into  a  corner  of  the  Sieverski  province.  Every  year  that 
he  reigned  made  people  more  accustomed  to  the  new 
dynasty,  made  them  look  more  naturally  to  his  son  Thedor 
as  their  future  sovereign.  If  the  Ljhedimitri  had  secret 
well-wishers  at  the  Court,  if  there  were  within  the  Kreml's 
precincts  men  who  fancied  Boris  guilty  of  reaching  the 
throne  by  a  hidden  crime,  it  was  by  the  same  means  that 
they  must  vanquish  him.  That  such  a  design  existed  would 
not  be  much  to  say  ;  that  it  was  ever  put  into  practice  there 
is  no  proof  History  merely  records  that  the  Tzar,  after 
transacting  business  all  the  morning,  dined  in  the  "  gilded 
room "  in  his  palace,  and  was  suddenly  stricken  with  a 
mysterious  malady,  of  which  he  died  two  hours  later  (13th 
April  1605).  So,  working  and  ruling  to  the  last,  passed 
away  the  great  boyarm,  who,  with  all  his  faults,  gave 
Russia  one  of  the  noblest  of  her  Tzars.  His  great  crime 
in  the  eyes  of  the  people  who  had  chosen  him  to  reign  over 
them  was  that  he  did  not  belong  to  the  sacred  House  of 
Rurikovitch,  but  for  all  his  Tartar  extraction  he  was  more 
western  in  his  ideas  than  any  of  the  sovereigns  of  Moskovy 
who  had  gone  before  him,  and  the  fifteen-year-old  son  whom 
he  had  educated  to  succeed  him  gave  promise  of  being  an 
enlightened  and  gracious  ruler.  Since  the  vaunted  Dimitri 
Donskoi,  he  was  the  first  Gosoudar  who  had  put  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  army  to  meet  a  Tartar  invasion,  and  Russia 
was  less  troubled  by  Krim  inroads  during  his  reign  than  she 
had  been  since  the  alliance  of  Ivan  III.  with  Mengli-Girei. 
As   the   sorrowing    Patriarch    escorted    his    dead    friend 


276  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


across  the  Kreml  square,  awake  with  the  young  pulse-life 
of  an  April  day,  into  the  chill  shadows  of  the  beautiful 
Cathedral  of  the  Archangel,  he  might  know  that  he  was 
burying  more  than  the  corpse  of  a  monarch.  With  Boris 
had  gone  the  peace  of  an  empire. 

In  all  the  wide  dominions  of  the  gosoudarstvo  three 
centres  of  interest  stood  out  with  a  marked  prominence  : 
the  capital,  the  camp  before  Kromi,  and  the  phantom  Court 
at  Poutivl.  At  Moskva,  where  the  oath  of  allegiance  to 
Thedor  Borisovitch  was  quietly  taken,  all  the  symptoms  of 
a  minority  or  regency  reasserted  themselves.  A  Douma, 
which  included  the  old  names  and  in  one  case  a  former 
member,  was  beckoned  into  existence.  Bogdan  Bielskie,  the 
twice-banished,  recurred  again  in  the  state  council,  where  he 
should  have  been  able  to  give  valuable  information  as  to  the 
outlying  parts  of  the  tzarstvo.  Mstislavskie  and  Vasili  and 
Dimitri  Shouyskie  were  summoned  from  their  commands  at 
Kromi,  less  perhaps  on  account  of  any  counsel  they  might 
impart  to  the  Tzaritza  and  her  son,  than  because  their 
withdrawal  smoothed  the  way  for  Basmanov  to  take  over 
the  command  of  the  army.  The  latter  brought  down  to  the 
camp  the  authentic  news  of  the  death  of  Boris,  and  exacted 
from  the  troops  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  sovereign. 
The  court  at  Moskva  felt  relieved  when  the  voevoda  whom 
Boris  had  loved,  and  who  had  given  proof  both  of  his  fidelity 
and  ability  in  the  defence  of  Novgorod-Sieverski,  went  down 
to  take  command  of  the  army  of  the  Oukrain,  and  they 
expected  to  hear  of  some  decisive  blow  struck  at  the 
impostor,  some  victory  which  should  open  the  new  reign 
with  brilliancy.  Instead  of  which  they  learned,  from  the 
mouths  of  two  fugitive  voevodas,  that  Basmanov,  in  con- 
junction with  the  princes  Golitzuin  and  Saltuikov,  had  pro- 
claimed the  Ljhedimitri  Tzar  of  Moskovy.  How  far  this 
was  a  contemplated  move,  how  far  it  was  a  sudden  decision, 
born  of  a  discovery  of  widespread  defection  among  the 
troops,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  effect  was  enormous, 
and  revolutionised  the  whole  struggle.  The  long  besieged 
Kozak  troop  in  Kromi  found  themselves  suddenly  hailed  as 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  277 

allies  by  the  men  who  had  for  months  been  working  to  en- 
compass their  destruction,  and  the  bold  adventurer  of  Poutivl 
was  able  to  come  out  of  his  retreat,  and  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  army  that  was  to  conduct  him  in  triumph  to 
Moskva.  The  news  of  these  events  had  stirred  all  classes 
in  the  white-built  city  ;  the  people  left  their  occupations  to 
gather  in  agitated  crowds  on  the  great  square  between  the 
Kitai-gorod  and  the  Kreml,  and  everywhere  was  heard  the 
name  Dimitri.  The  man  who  wore  that  name  was  march- 
ing with  the  tzarskie  army,  led  by  the  ablest  voevodas  of 
the  state,  under  the  banner  of  the  two-headed  eagle  and 
St.  George  the  Conqueror.  His  proclamations  were  daily 
smuggled  into  the  city  and  daily  the  popular  voice  turned 
in  his  favour.  The  strielitz  and  body-guard  were  becoming 
less  and  less  in  evidence  around  the  Kreml,  the  members  of 
the  Douma  were  coldly  received,  the  Patriarch  dared  not 
show  himself,  even  in  the  sacred  vestments  of  his  office,  and 
could  only  shed  tears  of  bitter  mortification  in  the  shelter  of 
his  palace.  With  the  first  day  of  June  came  the  fore- 
runners 'of  the  claimant  Tzar  to  the  Krasno  selo  (red,  or 
beautiful  village),  where  dwelt  the  rich  merchants  and  trades- 
men, a  class  which  had  never  been  well  affected  towards  the 
Godounov  interest  ;  the  Pretender  was  enthusiastically  pro- 
claimed, and  his  adherents  streamed  into  unguarded  Moskva, 
shouting  the  magic  name  of  Dimitri  Ivanovitch.  The 
multitude  of  the  city  rose  in  response  to  the  cry,  and 
clamouring  crowds,  giving  vent  to  their  restrained  feelings, 
burst  armed  and  angry  and  thousand -throated  into  the 
undefended  Kreml.  Boris  had  asked  his  subjects  to  bring 
him  the  Ljhedimitri  alive  or  dead.  They  were  bringing  him 
in  alive. 

The  first  acts  of  the  aroused  Moskvitchi  were  com- 
paratively moderate.  The  Tzaritza  -  mother,  the  young 
Thedor,  and  his  sister  were  removed  from  the  palace  and 
held  prisoners  in  the  private  mansion  of  the  Godounovs,  and 
a  clean  sweep  was  made  of  the  relatives  and  adherents  of 
the  fallen  House,  who  were  imprisoned  or  carried  off  to 
distant  parts  of  the  gosoudarstvo.      For  the  rest,  the  people 


278  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

celebrated  the  upheaval  by  getting  universally  intoxicated, 
and  to  the  wild  fury  of  the  day  succeeded  a  night  of 
stupefied  repose.  The  revolution,  however,  was  yet  to  claim 
its  victims  ;  while  the  new  sovereign  was  still  halting  at 
Toula  his  enemies  were  forcibly  removed  from  his  path. 
The  Patriarch  was  dragged  from  before  the  altar  of  the 
Cathedral  of  the  Assumption  and  dispoiled  of  his  robes  and 
office,  and  a  few  days  later  a  report  was  circulated  that 
Thedor  and  his  mother  had  poisoned  themselves.  Their 
bodies,  exposed  to  the  public  view,  bore  traces  of  violence, 
and  it  was  said  that  they  had  been  strangled  by  some 
strielitz  at  the  command  of  the  voevoda  Golitzuin.^  What 
hand,  if  any,  the  Pretender  had  in  the  matter  there  is 
nothing  to  show.  Thus  ended  a  dynasty  which  eight  weeks 
previously  had  seemed  in  assured  possession  of  the  throne. 
On  the  20th  of  June,  amid  the  resounding  of  myriad  bells 
and  the  hoarse  shouting  of  the  people  who  lined  streets,  and 
roofs,  and  campaniles,  the  Phantom  rode  into  the  city  of  his 
endeavours,  with  a  crashing  of  trumpets  and  kettle-drums, 
with  a  glittering  retinue  of  Polish  cavalry,  German  guards, 
Kozaks  and  strielitz.  The  long  lost  Dimitri,  as  his  subjects 
fondly  imagined  him,  made  solemn  obeisance  at  the  tomb 
where  the  dread  Ivan  slept,  and  incidentally  ordered  the 
remains  of  the  usurper  Boris  to  be  removed  to  a  less 
hallowed  resting-place.  A  cross-current  of  coffins  and 
persons  journeyed  to  and  from  the  centre-point  of  Moskovite 
life ;  Nagois  and  Romanovs,  living  and  defunct,  came  in 
from  their  monasteries  or  lonely  graves  to  dwell  or  decom- 
pose in  the  favoured  places  of  the  Kreml,  while  the 
Godounov  connections  and  Vremenszhiki  went,  literally,  out 
into  the  cold  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  Perm  and  Sibiria.  Vasili 
Shouyskie,  the  man  who  had  conducted  the  inquest  on  the 
murdered  Tzarevitch,  had  the  indiscretion  to  recall  this 
circumstance  to  the  minds  of  a  people  gone  wild  with 
enthusiasm.  His  reminiscences  were  not  interesting  to  the 
Tzar,  who  had  him  promptly  arrested.  He  was  interrogated, 
probably  with  the  accompaniment  of  torture,  and  condemned, 

^  S.  Solov'ev,  Karamzin. 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  279 

by  a  council  of  boyarins  and  citizens,  to  death.  While  his 
head  was  actually  awaiting  the  axe-stroke  a  dramatically 
timed  reprieve  stopped  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  which 
was  commuted  to  one  of  banishment.  The  people,  with 
whom  the  Shouyskie  family  were  more  or  less  popular, 
might  appreciate  the  sovereign's  clemency,  but  it  did  not 
strengthen  their  conviction  that  he  was  the  son  of  the 
terrible  Ivan.  A  new  Patriarch  was  elected,  Ignacie,  a 
Greek,  once  Archbishop  of  Cyprus,  from  which  see  he  had 
been  driven  by  the  Turks,  since  Archbishop  of  Riazan  ;  he 
had  been  one  of  the  first  of  the  Vladuikas  to  recognise  the 
adventurer  as  Tzar.  There  remained  one  more  step  towards 
establishing  his  identity,  which,  though  of  slight  historical 
value,  it  was  important  that  the  Pretender  should  take. 
Mariya  Nagoi,  seventh  wife  of  Ivan  IV.,  was  still  living,  and 
her  testimony  was  naturally  called  for  as  to  the  authenticity 
of  the  person  who  posed  as  her  son.  In  the  middle  of  July 
the  ex-Tzaritza  was  summoned  from  the  convent  that  had 
been  her  prison  for  so  many  years,  and  was  met  at  Tayninsk, 
a  village  near  Moskva,  by  the  man  who  claimed  her  as 
mother ;  whom,  after  a  private  interview,  she  publicly 
acknowledged  as  the  true  Dimitri.  After  thirty  years  of 
banishment  and  disgrace,  half  of  which  had  been  spent  in 
cloistered  seclusion,  the  relict  might  well  have  considered 
that  it  was  a  wise  mother  that  knew  her  own  child  in  the 
person  of  a  reigning  and  popular  sovereign.  The  very  fact 
that  his  imposture  had  overturned  her  hated  enemies,  the 
Godounovs,  would  have  gone  far  to  soothe  any  possible 
scruples.  It  is  significant  that  after  her  testimony  the 
"  Otrepiev  "  theory,  first  put  forward  by  the  Patriarch  in  the 
reign  of  Boris,  began  to  gain  ground  in  the  capital.  The 
people  who  had  feared  to  oppose  a  forlorn  and  desperate 
pretender,  from  an  idea  that  he  might  be  the  genuine  heir  of 
the  Rurikovitches,  were  not  comfortable  at  seeing  him  on 
the  sacred  throne  of  Monomachus,  from  a  suspicion  that  he 
might  not  be. 

Firmly  established   at  the  Kreml,  after  a  campaign  of 
almost  unexampled  good  fortune,  the  new  Sovereign  com- 


28o  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


menced  to  display  characteristics   disconcerting  alike  to  his 
subjects    and    to    future    students    of   his    personality.      His 
idiosyncrasies  were  not  those  of  the  House  whose  scion  he 
professed   to  be,  but  neither  were  they  those  of  a  partially- 
educated  adventurer.      The  boyarins  of  the  leading  families 
of  Moskva,  encased  in  the  complacent  conceit  of  ignorance, 
were  aghast  at  being  told  by  this  newly-appeared  Gosoudar 
that  their  great  need  was  schooling.      Boris  had  talked  of 
colleges  as  a  desirability  ;  Dimitri  spoke  of  them  as  urgent 
necessities.      For  their  part  the  boyarins  were  of  opinion  that 
the  Tzar  himself  had  much  to  learn  in  the  way  of  conform- 
ing with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Moskovites.      His 
behaviour  was  a  growing  source  of  scandal  to  his  Orthodox 
subjects  ;  his  hair  was  not  dressed   in  the  Russian  fashion  ; 
he  never  slept  after   dinner  ;  he  sat    down    to    dine  to  the 
sound  of  music  instead  of  prayer  ;  and    he  ate  veal.      He 
drilled    his  soldiers    himself — a    thing  which    no   Moskovite 
sovereign   had   ever  done — and  he  slew  bears  with  his  own 
hand    instead  of  seeing  them    killed    from  a  safe  distance. 
The  precedent  of  David,  King  of  Israel,  might  have  been 
quoted   in   extenuation   of  this  unbecoming    hardihood,  but 
nothing  could  excuse  the  erection  of  a  statue  of  Cerberus  in 
front  of  the  Tzar's   pleasure-house  in   the  Kreml,  a  locality 
hitherto    graced    only  with    the  representations    of  Bogoro- 
ditzas,    or   at    most    a   saint-mastered    dragon.      The    clergy 
were  offended   by  the  scant  consideration  with   which   they 
were    treated,    by   the    toleration    shown    to    Catholics    and 
Lutherans,  and    above  all    by   a   disposition   which    Dimitri 
showed  to  divert  some  of  the  hoarded  wealth  of  the  monas- 
teries to  the  public  treasury.      The  strielitz  were  piqued   by 
the    open    acknowledgment    which    the    Tzar   made   of   the 
superior  merits  of  the  foreign  soldiery,  the  boyarins  resented 
the  subordinate   part    they  were  compelled    to  play  at   the 
Court  of  this  man  of  new  and   unpalatable  ideas.      All   this 
gives  a  glimpse  of  a  strong  personality,  an  enlightened  mind, 
healthily  contemptuous  of  the  foibles  and  superstitions  with 
which  it  came  in  contact,  and  a  vigorous  faculty  for  reform 
and    organisation.      A    rare   character    in    the    long    list   of 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  281 

Moskovite  sovereigns.  Such  a  one  recurs  some  ninety  years 
later  and  creates  a  new  Russia.  The  Ljhedimitri,  himself  a 
man  of  straw,  appears  to  have  tried  to  cram  into  a  few 
months  the  patient  efforts  of  a  lifetime.  Probably  the  fact 
was  that  the  extraordinary^  facility  with  which  his  enterprise 
had  been  carried  to  a  triumphant  conclusion  gave  him  a 
false  idea  of  his  own  powers  and  of  the  dispositions  of  the 
Russians.  In  one  respect  only  do  his  transactions  approach, 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  to  the  childish  arrogance  of  the 
legitimate  Moskovite  Sovereigns  and  the  petulant  vanity 
which  might  be  expected  of  a  mushroom  monarch  ,  not 
only  did  he  demand  from  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Poland 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  old  disputed  title  of  Tzar,  but 
he  further  stipulated  for  the  style  of  Caesar  (Kesar),  an 
innovation  of  his  own  devising.  It  is  possible  that  this 
solemn  trifle,  which  threatened  to  interrupt  his  good  under- 
standing with  Rome  and  the  Holy  See,  was  really  intro- 
duced for  that  purpose,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  allies  who 
were  likely,  now  that  he  had  attained  his  ambitious  object, 
to  become  inconvenient.  That  he  had,  from  conviction  or 
policy,  privately  entered  the  Catholic  Church  during  the 
days  of  his  pretendership  seems  fairly  evident  ;  that  it  was 
not  expedient  to  carry  the  matter  farther  will  be  readily 
comprehended.  The  Jesuit  Father,  Pierling,  in  an  historical 
disquisition  on  the  subject,  combats  the  assertion  of  the 
Russian  writers  that  the  Ljhedimitri  was  "  invented  "  or  first 
brought  forward  by  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  Nuncio  in 
Poland,  or  any  agent  of  the  Pope.^  Certainly  there  is  no 
evidence  on  which  to  rest  such  a  charge,  which  probabh-  had 
its  origin  in  inter-Christian  jealousy.  The  fairest  and  most 
reasonable  conclusion  is  that  the  Jesuits,  Ragoni,  and  the 
Holy  See,  allowed  themselves  to  be  somewhat  easily  per- 
suaded of  the  legitimacy  of  the  claims  of  a  pretender  who 
might  render  splendid  services  to  their  Church.  Rome  had 
ever  been  dazzled  with  the  hope  of  bringing  the  Russian 
Communion  into  her  maternal  embrace,  and  the  prospect 
was  the  more  alluring  now  that  her  spiritual  dominion  had 

1  Le  pere  Pierling,  Rome  et  Demetrius. 


282  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

been  shorn  and  abbreviated  by  the  Protestant  heresy  in  the 
north  of  Europe,  and  by  the  Mohametan  encroachments  in 
the  south-east.  At  the  same  time  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  evidence  on  which  the  Cathohcs  and  Poles 
grounded  their  ostensible  faith  in  the  Ljhedimitri  was  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  that  which  imposed  upon  the  whole 
of  Russia.  The  zeal  of  a  convert — and  a  pensioner — showed 
a  considerable  abatement  when  the  adventurer  was  safely 
transformed  into  Tzar,  and  Dimitri  evinced  no  disinclination 
to  continuing  bowing  down  in  the  house  of  Rimmon  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  The  Poles  who  still  hung  about  his  person 
were  permitted  to  worship  freely  after  their  own  fashion,  and 
to  penetrate  into  the  sacred  places  of  Moskovite  Orthodoxy  ; 
but  when  sounded  on  the  subject  of  establishing  the  Latin 
faith  the  Tzar  talked  evasively  of  educating  his  subjects  and 
of  initiating  a  war  against  the  Sultan,  objects  nearer  his 
heart  than  a  revolution  of  dogmas.  If  a  contemptuous 
clemency  could  have  inspired  the  Moskvitchi  with  affection 
for  a  veal-eating  sovereign,  the  False  Dimitri  would  not  have 
lacked  popularity.  Vasili  Shouyskie  and  his  two  brothers 
were  recalled  from  their  disgrace  and  banishment,  and  the 
former  was  admitted  into  the  Council  of  the  Tzar.  The 
axe  and  the  gibbet  had  a  long  rest,  and  the  monarch  hunted 
bears  instead  of  boyarins.  Dimitri  might  have  strengthened 
his  position  and  gained  time  to  live  down  the  prejudices  of 
his  subjects  by  effecting  a  prudent  marriage  ;  by  allying 
himself  with  the  Romanov  or  even  the  Shouyskie  family  he 
would  have  created  a  party  for  himself  among  the  nobles 
and  have  secured  an  incontestable  link  with  the  line  of 
Rurik,  either  by  remote  descent  or  recent  connection.  For 
some  reason  of  his  own  he  was  bent  on  fulfilling  his  be- 
trothal vow  to  Marina  Mnishek,  and  such  was  his  impatience 
to  see  his  bride  at  Moskva,  sharing  his  throne,  that  the 
Palatine,  her  father,  was  able  to  exact  considerable  sums  of 
money  and  concessions  on  the  question  of  the  future 
May  1606  Tzaritza's  religious  liberty  (she  was  a  Catholic),  before 
escorting  her  to  her  expectant  husband.  The  arrival  at  the 
capital  of  the  Polish  maiden,  attended  by  her  father  and  a 


THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  283 


following  of  some   2000  persons,  together  with  an  embassy 
from  King  Sigismund,  did  not  inspire  the  citizens  with  any 
greater  affection   for  their  monarch,  already  tainted   in  their 
eyes  with    partiality  for    foreign    customs    and    alien    faiths. 
The  bride  made  her  state  entry  in  a  carriage  decorated  with 
silver  eagles  and   drawn  by  ten   pied  horses.      The  tzarskie 
troops,  in  red  coats  with  white  cross-belts,  were  drawn  up  to 
receive  her  ;  cannon,  bells,  drums  and  trumpets,  sounded  a 
welcome  ;  only  the  people  kept  an  ominous  silence.      It  was 
noted    with    disapproval    that    as    she    entered    the    Kreml 
through  the  Saviour  Gate,  a  portal  usually  crossed  with  deep 
obeisance,  the   Polish  band  crashed   out   their  national    air, 
"  For  ever  in  weal  as  in  woe."     The  wedding  and  coronation 
festivities  were  carried   on  with  a  lavish  display  and   open- 
handed  conviviality  seldom  seen  before  in  Moskva,  but  they 
were  not  preceded  by  the  elaborate  religious  ceremonials  by 
which  the  Grand  Princes  of  yore  had  been  wont  to  "  purify  " 
any    consort     they    took    from    un- Orthodox    lands.      The 
woman  who  now  shared  the  throne  of  INIonomachus  was  a 
Pole  and  a  Latin  ;  as  for  the  Tzar,  no  one  knew  what  or 
who  he  was — except  perhaps  Mariya  Nogai.     The  popular 
discontent    had    found    a    rallying-point    in    the    Shouyskie 
zamok  ;  'Dimitri  had   pardoned   Vasili  Shouyskie,  the  latter 
had    never    forgiven    'Dimitri.      Before    the    arrival    of    the 
bridal  foreigners  the  boyarin  had  set  in  movement  the  con- 
spiracy which  was  intended  to  hurl  the  impostor  from   his 
mis-gotten  throne.      The  plot  was  a  wide-reaching  one  and 
could   scarcely  be  kept  from  the  Tzar's  knowledge,  but  the 
newly-wedded    monarch,    strong    in    contemptuous    security 
and  engrossed  in   feasting  and   music,  paid  scant  notice  to 
the  warnings  which  he  received  from  spies  or  the  croaking 
of  his  guests  as  to  the  temper  of  the  people.     The  1 8th  of 
May  he  had  fixed   for  a  sham  battle  around  a  specially  con- 
structed wooden  fortress;    in    the  early  hours  of  the    17th 
his   subjects   gave   him    a   display   of  a    less   make-believe 
nature.     Besides  the  accumulated  dislike  for  the  Tzar  and 
all  his  ways,  the  Poles  who  had  flocked  in  such  numbers  to 
the  marriage  festival  of  Marina  Mnishek  gave  bitter  offence 


284  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

to  the  Moskvitchi  by  their  haughty  and  irreverent  bearing. 
It    was    the    old    history    of    Kiev    repeating    itself.      The 
Russians  chafed  to  see  the  Kreml  of  their  cherished  capital, 
the   Holy  of   Holies  of    the  Moskovite  nation,  overrun  by 
swaggering   Poles    and    lawless    Kozaks,   and    the    hour   of 
vengeance  was  eagerly  awaited  by  all  classes.      On  the  night 
of  the    1 6th  the  strangers  and  the  Tzar's  household,  weary 
with    wine    and    revelry,    sought    unsuspectingly    their    ac- 
customed couches  ;  otherwise  "  no  one  slept  that  night   in 
Moskva."      As    the  sun's    first  rays  touched    on  the  gilded 
cupolas  an  alarm  bell  clanged  out  from  a  church  ;  another 
and  another  took  up  the  signal,  till   all  over  the  watching 
city  the  warnings  resounded.      The  noise  penetrated  into  the 
Kreml  and  roused   the  Tzar  from  his  bed  ;  the  body-guard 
hazarded    the  explanation   that  a  fire  had    broken  out,  and 
the  Ljhedimitri  returned   to  his  chamber.      But  soon  above 
the  clanging  was  heard  the  angry  yelling  of  a  blood-seeking 
multitude,  and  Basmanov,  who  since  his  celebrated  desertion 
of  the  Godounovs  had  remained  true  to  his  adopted  master, 
burst  in  upon    the  startled    Tzar  and    warned    him    to    fly. 
The  voevoda   himself  faced    the  clamouring  crowd    on  the 
palace  staircase  and   sank  beneath  a  shower  of  murderous 
blows.      The    Ljhedimitri,    hunted    through    his    apartments, 
jumped    or  was    thrown    from    an    upper    window   and    lay 
broken  and  senseless  in  a  courtyard.      His  bleeding  corpse, 
seized  by  some  strielitz,  was  borne  into  a  chamber  where 
his  principal    boyarin    enemies  gathered    round  ;   for  a    few 
short  moments  he  returned  to  a  consciousness  of  agony  from 
broken  limbs,  saw  pitiless  scowling  faces  around  him,  heard 
taunts    and    abuse    from    angry    throats  ;    then    bullets    and 
sword -thrusts    closed     his    last    audience.      His    body    was 
dragged   with  ropes  out  through   the  Saviour  Gate,  to  the 
striking  of  the  same  bells  that  had  welcomed  his  state  entry 
eleven  months  ago,  and   haled  to  the  convent  of  the  Ascen- 
sion, where  dwelt  the  pseudo-mother  Mariya.     The  corpse 
might  well  have  been  beyond  recognition,  but  to  the  insist- 
ence  of  the   boyarins    the   old    Tzaritza   declared   that   the 
Ljhedimitri   was   not  her   son — a    recantation  as  worthy  of 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  285 

belief  as  the  former  avowal,  and  nothing  more.  The  carrion 
that  yesterday  had  been  Tzar  of  all  the  Russias  was  dragged 
back  to  the  Red  Place,  where,  naked  and  with  a  ribald  mask 
on  its  face,  it  was  exposed  for  three  days.  At  its  broken 
feet  lay  the  corpse  of  the  voevoda  who  had  been  faithful  to 
the  death.  "  They  loved  each  other  in  life  ;  let  them  be 
together  now."  So  passed  the  Phantom  Tzar  from  the 
throne  he  had  so  strangely  haunted  ;  phantom  still,  even 
when  his  dishonoured  body  had  been  flung  into  an  un- 
hallowed grave  beyond  the  city  walls,  in  "  the  house  of  the 
wretched,"  a  waste-land  where  outcasts  were  buried.  Here, 
it  was  rumoured,  mysterious  fires  were  seen  at  night.  The 
boyarins  wished  to  be  troubled  with  no  further  resurrections  ; 
the  corpse  was  dug  up  and  burned,  and  the  ashes,  mingled 
with  gunpowder,  blown  to  the  winds  from  a  cannon.^  But 
not  thus  even  could  they  get  rid  of  the  spirit  of  the  impostor 
whom  they  had  crowned  and  anointed.  Already,  before  his 
downfall,  new  spectres  had  started  up  in  various  quarters, 
following  on  the  same  lines.  From  Poland  had  come  a 
fable  that  Boris  had  deluded  the  Moskvitchi  with  a  sham 
death  and  interment  and  had  fled  to  England  disguised  as  a 
merchant.  A  more  substantial  fraud  was  that  of  a  false 
Petr,  a  supposed  son  of  Thedor  Ivanovitch,  who  was  actually 
carrying  on  a  war  of  petty  depredation  at  the  head  of  some 
Volga  Kozaks.  With  a  people  so  easily  deluded  the  ghost 
of  the  "  child  of  Ouglitch  "  would  not  be  easily  laid. 

Kostomarov's  question,  "  Who  was  the  first  false  Dimitri  ?" 
is  one  of  those  problems  of  history  that  seem  to  become 
more  tangled  and  unsolvable  the  more  light  is  brought  to 
bear  on  them.  A  careful  study  of  the  circumstances  and 
nature  of  his  career,  while  leading  to  a  strong  conviction  that 
he  was  not  Dimitri  Ivanovitch,  equally  disturbs  the  theory 
that  he  was  Grigorie  Otrepiev.  The  man  who  showed  him- 
self alike  indifferent  to  the  Greek  and  Latin  cults,  w^ho  would 
not  cross  himself  before  the  adored  ikons — the  real  Dimitri 
would  have  prostrated  himself  before  them,  if  heredity  and 
early  education  go  for  anything  —  who,  moreover,  was 
^  S.  Solov'ev  ;  Kostomarov  ;  Le  pere  Pierling  ;  V.  N.,  Iz  Istorie  Moskvui. 


286  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

earnestly  concerned  for  the  education  and  welfare  of  his 
people  ;  who  strove  by  personal  effort  to  raise  the  fighting 
value  of  the  deplorably  slack  Moskovite  army,  and  who 
restored  the  old  boast  of  Monomachus,  never  to  leave  to 
subordinates  what  might  be  done  by  himself,  above  the  effete 
Byzantine-borrowed  etiquette  of  the  later  Russian  Gosoudars  ; 
who,  in  the  midst  of  feasting  and  rejoicing  was  steadily  pre- 
paring for  an  attack  on  the  Sultan,  and  who  treated  his 
private  enemies  with  clemency  and  even  distinction  ;  the 
man  who  displayed  all  these  qualities  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  was  assuredly  not  a  Rurikovitch,  nor  was  he  an 
adventurer  who  had  received  his  education  only  in  a  Mosko- 
vite monastery,  who  had  seen  life  only  in  a  Kozak  camp. 
That  he  was  really  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits, 
nursed  and  educated  for  the  purpose  which  he  was  afterwards 
called  upon  to  fulfil,  necessitates  not  only  a  much  greater 
intimacy  with  Russian  affairs  than  that  body  are  known  to 
have  possessed,  but  also  a  foreknowledge  on  their  part  of  the 
course  those  affairs  were  likely  to  take  under  the  Godounov 
dynasty.  Such  pretenders  are  not  made  in  a  day.  Each 
supposition  takes  the  inquiry  no  farther  than  the  starting- 
point — who  was  the  first  false  Dimitri  ?  And  here  it  must 
be  left.  Russian  historians  of  the  Orthodox  Faith  at  least 
are  able  to  say  with  absolute  conviction  that  the  Tzar  of 
1605-6  was  not  the  real  Dimitri,  for  the  latter  was  beatified 
by  the  Church,  and  many  miracles  were  performed  at  his 
reputed  tomb.  If  the  supposed  impostor  were  proved  to  be 
identical  with  the  veritable  Ivanovitch,  a  new  and  embarrass- 
ing dilemma  would  arise.  The  history  of  the  career  of  the 
Ljhedimitri  is  instructive  as  to  the  slender  evidence  on  which 
whole  peoples  will  base  their  implicit  belief  in  a  resuscitation, 
or  even  in  a  resurrection.  Such  beliefs  have  lived  again  and 
again  in  human  history  ;  some  are  living  yet.  Ljhedimitries, 
false  Pucelles,  Perkin  Warbecks,  missing  Archdukes,  and 
others  that  need  not  be  mentioned,  have  their  perennial 
Easter  in  the  credulity  of  mankind. 

The  catastrophe  which  had  overtaken  the  impostor-Tzar 
included    in   its  scope  the   foreign   guests  who  were    partly 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  287 

responsible  for  the  outbreak.  The  massacre  commenced 
with  Dimitri's  musicians  and  servants  in  the  Kreml  and 
extended  to  the  lodgings  of  the  Poles  and  Lit'uanians  in  the 
Kitai-  and  Biel-gorod.  For  seven  hours  the  church-bells 
dinned  out  their  vibrating  war-music,  and  tumultuous  crowds 
of  citizens  and  strielitz  put  to  death  such  of  the  foreigners 
as  were  unable  to  defend  themselves.  Well  to  the  fore  in 
the  work  of  butchery  were  the  priests  and  monks,  who  turned 
the  occasion  of  the  Marina  marriage  into  a  S.  Bartholomew 
of  their  own,  hunting  down  with  zealous  rage  the  "  enemies 
of  their  religion."  ^  The  houses  of  the  Palatine  and  of  some 
of  the  other  Polish  nobles  were  vigorously  defended  by  their 
retainers,  who  fired  from  the  windows  upon  their  assailants. 
Vasili  Shouyskie  (who  had  led  the  first  rush  into  the  Kreml, 
crucifix  in  one  hand,  sword  in  another),  and  other  boyarins 
rode  about  the  streets  endeavouring  to  calm  the  tempest  they 
had  raised,  and  were  able  to  save  Mnishek,  the  Tzaritza,  the 
ambassadors,  and  those  of  the  Poles  who  had  been  successful 
in  defending  their  thresholds.  The  bells  were  quieted,  and 
the  people  dispersed  to  their  homes,  or  vented  their  smould- 
ering rage  in  mutilating  the  figure  on  the  Red  Place. 

With  the  disappearance  of  the  Ljhedimitri  the  Moskovites 
were  again  confronted  with  an  interregnum,  and  on  this 
occasion  there  was  no  one  very  obviously  marked  out  to  fill 
the  vacant  throne.  By  a  process  of  exhaustion  they  fixed 
on  the  Rurik-descended  kniaz  who  had  offered  the  most  deter- 
mined opposition  to  the  impostor,  and  who  had  engineered 
the  revolution  which  had  brought  about  his  overthrow. 
Vasili  Ivanovitch  Shouyskie,  a  man  of  mediocre  talents, 
widowed  and  past  his  prime,  was  scarcely  a  promising  per- 
sonality with  whom  to  start  a  new  dynasty,  and  the  election 
of  a  sovereign  of  such  an  obviously  stop-gap  nature  almost 
invited  new  intrigues  and  new  apparitions.  Prudence  sug- 
gested at  least  a  recourse  to  a  national  assembly,  such  as 
that  which  had  elected  Boris,  but  Shouyskie  preferred  to  take 
the  tide  of  his  fortune  at  its  flood,  and  was  content  to  receive 
the  crown  of  all  the  Russias  from  the  hands  of  the  boyarins, 

1  Karamzin. 


2g8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


clergy,  and   merchants  of  Moskva.      Nor  was  this  the  only 
error  he  committed  in  the  impatience  for  power  to  which  old 
men  are  especially  liable.     The  trail  of  Polish  influence  made 
itself  visible  even  in  the  electoral  gathering  of  the  nobles  and 
citizens  who  had  just  entered  a  blood-drenched  protest  against 
all  that  pertained  to  the  West-Slavonic  state.      An  oath  was 
exacted  from  Vasili  to  the  effect  that  he  would   swear  to 
govern  in  consultation  with  the  boyarins,  and  to  put  no  one 
to  death  without  their  consent ;  that  he  would  listen  to  no 
false   denunciators  ;  and   that   he  would   not   confiscate  the 
lands,  goods,  shops  or  houses,  of  the  relatives  of  condemned 
offenders.^      This  concession,  the  first  step  towards  the  Pacta 
conventa  of  Poland,  was  an   innovation   which  shook   men's 
ideas  of  the  sacred  nature  of  the  sovereign,  and  reduced  the 
new  Tzar  more  than   ever  to  the  position   of  a  make-shift 
ruler,  the  mere  head  of  a  boyarin  douma.      Without  waiting 
for  the  consecration  of  a  new  Patriarch  (the  Russian  Primates 
regularly  toppled  over  and  disappeared  in  the  political  earth- 
quakes   which    engulfed    their    temporal    masters),    Vasili's 
coronation  was  solemnised  on  the   1st  of  June,  the  earliest 
date  by  which  the  corpses  of  the  victims  of  the  late  massacre 
could  be  cleared  out  of  the  city.     The  first  act  of  the  new 
reign  w-as  one  of  nervous  ostentation  ;  the  remains  of  the 
genuine  Dimitri  were  solemnly  transported  from  Ouglitch  to 
the  Kreml  of  Moskva,  where  they  were  reinterred    in  the 
Cathedral  of  the  Archangel.      Here,  in   this  sacred  environ- 
ment, under  the  eye   of  the  Tzar,  it  was  hoped   that   this 
troublesome  Ivanovitch  would   sleep  in  peace  and  cease  to 
haunt  the  throne  which  should  have  been  his  heritage.     The 
revolution    was    completed    by   the    election    of    Hermogen, 
Metropolitan  of  Kazan,  to  the  Patriarchate,  the  new  head  of 
the  Church  being  a  bitter  opponent  of  all  that  savoured  of 
foreign   heresy.      Surrounded  by  courtiers  who  had  not  had 
time    to    develop    disaffection,   by    complaisant    priests   and 
heavily-armed    strielitz,    encompassed    on    all    sides    by   the 
stately  and  sanctified  buildings  of  the  Kreml,  and  breathing 
an  atmosphere  laden  with  the   exhalations   of  centuries  of 

1  Kostomarov. 


THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  289 


accumulated  homage  rendered  to  saints  and  sovereigns, 
Vasili  may  have  fancied  himself,  in  fact  as  well  as  title.  Tzar 
of  all  the  wide  Russias.  But  throughout  the  hot  days  of 
July  and  August,  when  the  sun  blazed  on  the  white  and  gold 
cupolas,  and  the  dogs  slunk  about  with  lolling  tongues  in  the 
shady  bazaars  of  the  Kitai-gorod,  and  frogs  croaked  dismally 
from  the  steamy  marshes  of  the  Neglina,  dust-coated  mes- 
sengers kept  pouring  in  to  the  Tzar's  paradise,  by  the  Saviour 
and  Nikolai  Gates,  with  tidings  of  trouble  and  unrest  through- 
out the  land.  From  the  Sieverski  country,  from  Toula, 
Kalouga,  from  the  camp  at  Eletz,  from  the  Volga  valley,  and 
from  far  Astrakhan  came  reports  of  sedition  and  open  rebellion, 
and  the  burden  of  each  report  was  the  magic  name  Dimitri. 
It  almost  seemed  as  if,  in  scattering  the  ashes  of  the  impostor 
to  the  winds,  his  undertakers  had  sown  a  crop  of  phantoms 
which  was  now  springing  up  in  all  directions.  The  most  per- 
sistent rumour  was  that  Dimitri  had  escaped  once  again  from 
the  hands  of  his  would-be  murderers  and  had  fled  into  Poland, 
another  man  having  been  killed  in  his  stead  ;  the  Moskvitchi 
instantly  recalled  the  fact  that  the  face  of  the  corpse  so 
ostentatiously  exposed  on  the  Red  Place  had  been  covered 
by  a  mask.  Another  widely-circulated  version  invented  a 
new  Dimitri  who  had  only  just  emerged  from  the  obscurity 
of  his  exile  and  claimed  the  throne  as  the  real  child  of 
Ouglitch.  Nowhere  at  the  outset  was  there  even  the 
foundation  of  a  pretender  round  whom  these  legends  might 
crystallise  ;  he  existed  as  yet  only  in  the  popular  imagina- 
tion. The  first  impostor  had  created  the  belief  in  a  romantic- 
ally restored  Dimitri;  the  belief  now  called  for  another 
impostor.  Several  princes  and  boyarins  of  the  lesser  rank 
(styled  dieti-boyarins,  literally  "  children-boyarins  ")  took  up 
arms  in  support  of  what  was  more  than  ever  a  phantom,  but 
the  most  formidable  of  the  war-brands  which  blazed  out  at 
this  time  was  remarkable  for  belonging  to  a  class  which  had 
supplied  few  men  of  note  to  Russian  history.  Bolotnikov, 
who  claimed  to  have  seen  the  real  Dimitri  in  Poland  and  to 
have  been  appointed  his  lieutenant,  was  a  serf  who  had  been 
carried  off  in  one  of  the  Tartar  raids  by  which  South  Russia 

u 


290  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  cha?: 


was  periodically  drained  of  her  already  sparse  population, 
and  had  continued  his  life  of  toil  in  a  Turkish  galley. 
Obtaining  his  liberty,  he  had  wandered  back  to  his  native 
country,  to  reappear,  like  a  trouble-scenting  beast  of  prey,  in 
the  hour  of  mischief  and  calamity.  His  real  purpose,  which 
underlay  the  Dimitri  agitation,  was  to  inaugurate  a  peasant 
rebellion,  and  if  an  apprenticeship  of  hardship  and  suffering 
were  any  qualification  for  the  championship  of  a  down-trodden 
class,  the  enterprise  was  in  good  hands.  The  sedition  of 
the  voevodas  and  their  military  followings,  the  loosening 
of  the  central  authority  over  the  provincial  kniazes  and 
boyarins,  and  the  open  door  which  the  general  dislocation 
offered  to  the  free-lances  and  Kozaks  of  the  borders,  swelled 
the  insurrection  to  alarming  dimensions.  As  in  the  long 
struggle  of  the  Fronde  which  distressed  France  in  the  same 
century,  it  was  difficult  to  say  what  each  particular  band-in- 
arms was  fighting  for.  The  very  vagueness  of  the  threatened 
danger  added  to  its  alarm,  and  the  waning  of  the  year, 
instead  of  dispersing  the  insurgent  army  which  had  gathered 
round  Bolotnikov,  impelled  it  towards  Moskva.  Towns  and 
gorodoks  surrendered  to  the  ex-serf  as  they  had  done  before 
to  the  reputed  ex-priest,  and  the  rebels  reached  the  village 
of  Kolomensk  on  the  2nd  December.  But  the  ambitious 
nobles  who  had  thrown  in  their  lot  with  the  peasant  leader 
saw  no  prospect  of  seizing  or  holding  the  capital  on  the 
strength  of  an  empty  name,  the  shadow  of  a  shadow,  nor 
did  they  propose  to  install  a  serf  and  sometime  galley-slave 
on  the  throne  of  Monomachus.  Several  flitted  away  from 
the  insurgent  camp,  and  the  young  voevoda  Mikhail  Skopin- 
Shouyskie  defeated  and  dispersed  the  diminished  company 
of  rebels,  whose  leader  fled  to  Kalouga.  Relieved  from  the 
onslaught  which  had  threatened  to  overturn  his  throne, 
1607  Vasili  was  able  to  celebrate  Christmas  in  his  capital,  and  the 
New  Year  was  marked  by  another  of  the  coffin-movings 
which  accompanied  every  change  in  the  dynasty,  and  were 
characteristic  of  a  period  when  the  dead  seemed  to  share  the 
restlessness  of  the  living.  This  time  it  was  the  remains  of 
Boris,  his  wife,  and  Thedor  II.  which  were  conducted  to  the 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  291 

Troitza  monastery,  possibly  as  a  guarantee  against  inconven- 
ient reappearances — a  precaution  certainly  not  uncalled  for. 
Bolotnikov  meanwhile  had  gathered  fresh  adherents  and 
joined  his  forces  to  those  of  the  pretended  Tzarevitch  Petr, 
who  brought  a  large  following  of  Don  and  Volga  Kozaks. 
The  Tzar  marched  against  this  new  rival  in  person,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  100,000  men,  and  drove  the  rebels  into 
Toula.  Bolotnikov,  seeing  the  hopelessness  of  the  struggle 
under  existing  circumstances,  sent  a  courier  to  the  Palatine 
of  Sendomir,  urging  the  immediate  production  of  a  flesh- 
and- blood  Dimitri,  without  whom  all  was  lost.^  The  pre- 
cedent of  Kromi,  however,  was  not  repeated,  and  in  October 
the  besieged  leaders  of  the  revolt,  Bolotnikov,  the  "  Ljhepetr," 
and  two  or  three  boyarins  who  had  continued  staunch  to 
the  movement,  surrendered  the  fortress  on  the  condition 
that  their  lives  should  be  spared.  The  holy  and  Orthodox 
Tzar  crowned  his  victory  by  inflicting  a  signal  chastisement 
on  his  too  confiding  enemies.  Bolotnikov  had  his  eyes 
struck  out  and  was  then  drowned,  a  fit  climax  to  his  career  ; 
the  pretended  Tzarevitch  was  hung,  and  hundreds  of  his 
followers  flung  into  the  river.  The  boyarins  escaped  with 
lesser  punishments.  Vasili  returned  to  Moskva  "  in  triumph." 
But  the  demolition  of  one  pretender  seemed  to  make  way 
for  a  whole  crop  of  dragon-heads  ;  on  all  sides  sprang  up 
self-styled  heirs  of  the  vanished  line  of  Moskva.  One  was 
a  pretended  son  of  Ivan  Groznie,  another  of  the  murdered 
Ivan  Ivanovitch,  while  in  the  Oukrain  alone  no  fewer  than 
eight  apparitions  disputed  the  parentage  of  the  saintly 
Thedor  Ivanovitch.^  It  was  as  though  a  whole  baby-farm 
of  tzarskie  foundlings  and  unacknowledged  offspring  had 
suddenly  come  to  maturity  and  public  notice.  But  more 
formidable  than  any  of  these  shadowy  claimants,  there  ap- 
peared in  the  spring  of  1608,  in  the  Sieverski  land,  the  long- 
demanded  Dimitri — Ljhedimitri  11.  of  Russian  historians. 
Who  this  man  was  is  as  deep  a  mystery  as  the  origin  of  his 
forerunner,  but  his  claims  received  almost  as  ready  a  recog- 
nition.     His  following  of  Dniepr  Kozaks  and   Polish  adven- 

1  S.  Solov'ev.  2  Kostomarov. 


292  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

turers  was  swelled  daily  by  desertions  from  the  Moskovite 
soldiery,  and  town  after  town  proclaimed  him.  He  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Toushin,  a  village  twelve  verstas  from  the 
capital,  where  he  pitched  his  camp,  which  instantly  became 
a  rallying -point  for  all  the  disaffected  and  intractable 
elements  which  the  period  of  troubles  had  called  forth. 
Among  other  birds  of  sinister  omen  who  made  their  appear- 
ance at  the  impostor's  improvised  Court  were  the  Palatine 
Mnishek  and  his  daughter,  widow  of  the  first  Ljhedimitri, 
and  though  there  was  little  outward  resemblance  between  the 
two  men,  the  new  pretender  was  publicly  "  recognised "  by 
Marina  as  her  husband. 

The  Moskovites  by  this  time  had  lost  their  first  en- 
thusiasm for  romantically  restored  Tzarevitches  and  took 
their  revolutions  more  soberly.  The  tide  of  success  carried 
the  Ljhedimitri  no  farther  than  Toushin  ;  in  Moskva  itself 
there  was  no  popular  upheaval  such  as  that  which  swept 
the  first  pretender  into  the  Kreml  over  the  ruins  of  the 
Godounov  dynasty.  On  the  other  hand  there  was  as  little 
enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  the  Tzar,  who  inspired  none  of 
the  reverence  and  affection  which  the  people  had  been  wont 
to  lavish  on  their  legitimate  hereditary  sovereigns.  The 
mutual  weakness  of  the  rivals  led  to  an  extraordinary 
situation  ;  the  Tzar  of  Moskva  dared  not  march  against  the 
"  thief  of  Toushin,"  and  the  pretended  Dimitri  dared  not 
march  against  the  "  usurper."  Russia  was  divided  by  two 
Gosoudars  whose  antagonistic  Courts  were  pitched  within  a 
few  miles  of  each  other.  Many  of  the  Moskovite  upper 
class,  hovering  in  their  allegiance,  flitted  to  and  fro  between 
Toushin  and  the  Kreml,  paying  their  respects  to  both  Tzars 
and  gathering  favours  and  presents  from  both  masters — a 
course  of  action  which  earned  for  them  the  designation  of 
"  per61eti "  (birds  of  passage).  The  merchant  folk  of  the 
capital  pursued  a  similar  policy,  and  finding  a  better  market 
for  their  goods  among  the  free-spending  camp-dwellers  at 
Toushin,  almost  depleted  the  city  of  its  necessary  supplies, 
a  state  of  things  further  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  the 
rebels  held  the  roads  to  the  rich  corn-province  of  Riazan. 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  293 

Beyond  the  fiat  meadows  of  the  Moskva  valley  the  contest 
was  waged  more  briskly  ;  despite  Sigismund's  solemn  assur- 
ances of  a  strictly  enforced  neutrality,  numbers  of  Poles 
flocked  to  the  adventurer's  service,  among  them  the  voevoda 
Sapieha,  already  distinguished  by  his  military  exploits  in 
Transylvania  and  Sweden.  The  rapidly  moving  Kozak  and 
Polish  troops  of  the  Pretender's  army  outmatched  in  activity 
the  heavily-armed  and,  for  the  most  part,  slackly-led  forces 
of  Vasili.  In  the  north-eastern  province  town  after  town 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  "  Toushinists  "  ;  Souzdal,  Vladimir, 
and  Per6yaslavl  opened  their  gates  or  were  captured  after 
a  perfunctory  resistance ;  Rostov,  where  resided  Filarete 
Romanov,  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Metropolitan  of  that  town 
by  the  first  'Dimitri,  made  a  bolder  stand  against  the 
conquerors.  Defeated  in  battle  outside  the  walls,  the 
garrison  and  citizens  defended  their  ramparts  for  three  hours, 
and  when  finally  overpowered  took  refuge  with  Romanov 
in  the  cathedral.  The  town  submitted  to  the  impostor's 
voevodas,  and  the  Metropolitan  was  dragged  from  his 
sanctuary  and  conducted  with  indignity  to  Toushin,  where 
not  martyrdom  but  preferment  awaited  him.  Out  of  con- 
sideration for  Filarete's  kinship  with  his  "  late  half-brother  " 
(the  Tzar  Thedor  I.),  the  'Dimitri  proclaimed  his  captive 
Patriarch  of  Moskva  and  of  all  Russia.^ 

Unable  to  attempt  a  direct  attack  upon  the  capital,  the 
pretender  endeavoured  to  possess  himself  of  the  Troitza 
lavra.  The  accumulated  wealth  of  this  famous  monastery, 
which  had  risen  like  a  celestial  city  on  the  site  of  the  lonely 
cell  from  which  S.  Sergie  had  watched  the  beavers  playing, 
necessitated  safe  keeping.  High  walls  and  strongly  fortified 
towers  and  gates  peeped  out  from  amid  the  thickly  growing 
trees,  and  spoke  defiance  to  Tartar  raiders  and  plundering 
bands  of  freebooters.  They  were  now  called  upon  to  with- 
stand an  organised  siege  from  the  batteries  of  the  False 
Dimitri.  In  anticipation  of  the  threatened  attack  two 
voevodas  and  a  detachment  of  soldiers  were  dispatched  from 
Moskva   to   the   assistance   of   the    monks,    who    numbered 

1  S.  Solov'ev. 


294  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 

scarcely  more  than  300  brothers  ;  the  monastery  servants 
and  peasants  from  the  neighbouring  villages  brought  the 
effective  of  the  defenders  to  2500.  At  the  end  of  September 
1608  a  force  of  30,000  men,  Poles,  Russians,  Tartars, 
Kozaks,  and  Tcherkesses,  led  by  Sapieha  and  Lisovski, 
invested  this  secluded  haven  of  peace  and  piety,  which  was 
suddenly  transformed  into  a  beleaguered  fortress.  The  balls 
from  ninety  heavy  cannon  crashed  incessantly  against  the 
walls  and  towers,  which  "  shivered,  but  did  not  fall "  ;  mines 
and  assaults  alike  were  fruitless,  and  the  siege  dragged  on 
month  after  month.  The  monks  fought  as  vigorously  as 
the  soldiers,  and  during  the  lulls  in  the  attack  paraded  their 
venerated  ikons  on  the  ramparts.^  Meanwhile  the  tide  of 
the  Ljhedimitri's  success  had  begun  to  ebb.  The  com- 
position of  his  following  bore  within  itself  the  elements  of 
defeat.  The  Poles,  Kozaks,  and  Russian  outlaws,  who 
formed  the  most  active  contingents  of  his  adherents,  drove 
from  his  cause,  by  their  licentiousness  and  indiscriminate 
marauding,  the  people  whom  they  had  previously  won  over 
by  their  energy  and  the  renown  of  their  arms.  Wherever 
the  opportunity  offered,  the  towns  which  had  acknowledged 
the  pretender  renounced  his  sovereignty  and  recognised  that 
of  Vasili.  The  reaction  was  further  hastened  by  the  victori- 
ous campaign  of  Skopin-Shouyskie  and  his  Swedish  allies. 
Vasili,  less  prudent  than  Boris,  had  accepted  the  renewed 
offer  of  assistance  which  King  Karl  held  out,  and,  at  the 
price  of  yielding  up  the  town  of  Keksholm  and  district  of 
Korelia,  had  obtained  the  services  of  5000  Swedes,  led  by 
Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  son  of  the  famous  general.  With  this 
reinforcement  Skopin-Shouyskie  proceeded  to  strike  at  the 
northern  strongholds  of  the  Toushinists,  and  the  two  young 
captains  (Mikhail  was  twenty -three,  de  la  Gardie  twenty- 
1609  seven)  swept  all  before  them.  A  victory  over  the  rebels  in 
May  was  followed  by  the  capture  of  Toropetz,  Kholm, 
Velikie-Louki,  and  other  places.  In  July  the  army  of  the 
False  Dimitri  was  driven  out  of  Tver  after  hard  fighting. 
Temporarily  deserted    by  the    Swedes,  whose   demands   he 

1  Istoritcheskoe  Opisanie  sviatotroitzkiya  Sergievui  Lavrui. 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  295 

was  unable  to  satisfy,  Skopin  continued  to  organise  victory  ; 
his  exhausted  war-chest  was  replenished  by  patriotic  dis- 
bursements from  several  monasteries,  while  the  Stroganovs 
sent  him  valuable  aid  in  men  and  money  from  Perm.  The 
young  voevoda  "  whom  the  people  loved "  had  the  art  of 
opening  purse-strings  as  well  as  of  forcing  strongholds.  In 
August  a  force  detached  from  the  siege  of  the  stubbornly 
defended  Troitza  was  met  and  repulsed  with  loss  on  the 
banks  of  a  Volga  tributary  stream,  and  in  October  Skopin, 
rejoined  by  the  Swedes,  drove  his  enemies  successively  out 
of  Pereyaslavl  and  the  Aleksandrovski  sloboda.  The  loss 
of  the  latter  place  threatened  the  blockade  which  the  Ljhe- 
dimitri's  voevodas  had  drawn  round  Moskva,  and  Sapieha 
made  a  determined  effort  to  beat  back  the  indomitable  pilot 
of  the  reaction.  Around  the  horror-haunted  village  where 
the  Terrible  had  amused  himself  with  his  bears  and  gibbets 
and  services,  a  bloody  battle  was  fought  between  the  armies 
of  the  rival  Tzars ;  Shouyskie's  Moskovite  and  Permskie 
troops  and  the  Swedish  allies  crowned  their  campaign  by 
another  victory,  and  the  followers  of  the  Thief  straggled 
away  from  a  scene  of  defeat  and  slaughter.  Wearily  back 
they  made  their  way  to  the  doleful  camp  at  Toushin  or  to 
the  monastery  whose  battered  walls  still  held  them  at  bay, 
while  the  ravens  and  hooded  corbies  came  barking  and 
croaking  out  of  the  darkening  woods  to  interest  themselves 
in  the  corpses  stiffening  in  the  snow  ;  and  from  afar,  perhaps 
from  the  distant  Valdai  mountains,  the  vultures  swooped 
down  on  the  same  errand. 

The  cause  of  the  phantom  was  fading  ;  on  the  1 2th  1610 
January  the  defenders  of  the  Troitza,  worn  with  sixteen 
months  of  siege  and  wasted  with  want  and  disease,  saw  their 
foiled  enemies  withdraw  sullenly  from  their  dismantled 
trenches  and  vanish  from  the  landscape  they  had  so  long 
disfigured.  In  February  the  impostor  withdrew  southward 
to  Kalouga,  and  by  March  the  famous  camp  of  Toushin 
was  deserted.  But  the  decline  of  the  Ljhedimitri's  fortunes 
was  not  followed  by  a  corresponding  improvement  in  those 
of  Vasili.     Sigismund,  who  had  secretly  abetted  the  cause 


296  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


of  the  second  pretender,  prepared  to  play  a  bolder  game  now 
that  the  insurrection  seemed  on  the  wane.      The  calling  in 
of  the  Swedes,  the  "  interference  "  of  the  rival  branch  of  the 
House  of  Vasa,  gave  him  a  diplomatic  excuse  for  displaying 
open  hostility  towards  the  Tzar,  and  the  confusion  which 
reigned  throughout  Russia  furnished  him  with  an  opportunity 
for  intervening  with  specious  solicitude  in  the  eddying  course 
of  the  troubles.      In  September  he  crossed  the  border  with 
a   not   very   numerous   army,  and   invited    the   burghers   of 
Smolensk  to  admit  him  as  a  friend  who  wished  only  to  stay 
the  shedding  of  Russian  blood.      A  similar  declaration  was 
forwarded  to  Moskva.     Shein,  the  governor   of  Smolensk, 
refused  to  be  cajoled    by  the   benevolent   overtures  of  the 
honey-lipped   King,  and  the  city  was  blockaded.      Sapieha 
and  the   Poles  and  West-Russian   Kozaks  were  summoned 
from  the  pretender's  service  to  join    the    royal    camp,  and 
many  of  the   Moskovite  adherents  of  the  Ljhedimitri  went 
with  them.      Thus  a  new  danger  trod  on  the  heels  of  the 
old  one,  and  Vasili  once  again  beheld  his  Sysiphus  stone  of 
subjugation  and  pacification  roll  back  from  the  almost-gained 
summit.      A  catastrophe  which  was  suspiciously  like  a  crime 
deprived  him  at  once  of  the  services  of  his  ablest  voevoda 
and  of  the  lingering  affections  of  the   Moskvitchi.      Skopin- 
Shouyskie  and  de  la  Gardie  had  wintered  their  troops  at 
Aleksandrov;    in   March    1610  they  made  their  entry  into 
the  capital,  where  the  young   Mikhail   was  received  with  a 
public   enthusiasm    such   as    had    probably    never    been    so 
spontaneously  exhibited  since  the  triumph  of  the  victor  of 
Koulikovo.      Far  out   into    the  slobodas  and   meadows    the 
populace  streamed  to  welcome  their  hero,  falling  prostrate 
as  he  rode  by  with  his  companion-in-arms,  and  calling  him 
their  saviour  ;   some  were  said  to  have  hailed  him  as  their 
Tzar.      This    demonstration    could   scarcely    fail    to    be   dis- 
pleasing  to  Vasili  ;    it  was  the  old  story  of  a  consciously 
feeble  monarch  and  a  victorious  and  idolised  warrior.      Still 
more  would  it  jar  upon  the  Tzar's  brother  and  natural  heir, 
Dimitri     Shouyskie,     whose     chances     of    succession     were 
undoubtedly  threatened    by  the  popularity  of  his    nephew. 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  297 

At  a  christening  feast  given  by  the  Tzar's  brother-in-law, 
Ivan  Vorotuinskie,  on  the  23  rd  April,  the  young  hope  of 
the  Moskovites  was  seized  with  a  deadly  illness,  and  expired 
as  soon  as  he  had  been  carried  to  his  own  house.  His 
friend  and  fellow-in-arms,  de  la  Gardie,  forced  himself  into 
the  death -chamber,  and,  gazing  wofully  on  his  stricken 
comrade,  exclaimed,  "  People  of  Moskva,  not  only  in  your 
Russia,  but  in  the  lands  of  my  sovereign,  I  shall  not  see 
again  such  another  man."  The  heart -wail  of  the  young 
soldier  was  echoed  by  the  people,  who  mingled  with  their 
lamentations  bitter  and  not  unreasonable  accusations  of  foul 
play  against  the  Shouyskies.  Ekaterina,  wife  of  Dimitri 
Shouyskie,  of  the  "  viper  brood "  of  Skouratov  (she  was 
daughter  of  Maluta),  was  generally  credited  with  having 
administered  poison  to  the  unsuspecting  Mikhail.  To  crown 
the  universal  resentment,  Dimitri  Shouyskie  was  given  the 
vacant  command  of  the  tzarskie  troops. 

While  the  muttering  roll  of  disaffection  sounded  louder 
every  day  on  the  Red  Place  and  in  the  markets  of  the 
Kitai-gorod,  in  the  west  the  Polish  invaders  (who  had  put 
forward  Vladislav,  son  of  Sigismund,  as  candidate  for  the 
throne  of  Moskva)  were  making  themselves  masters  of  the 
Russian  border  towns.  Starodoub,  Potchep,  and  Tchernigov 
were  taken  by  assault,  Novgorod -Sieverski  and  Roslavl 
"  kissed  the  cross  "  to  Vladislav.  Against  these  advancing 
enemies  it  was  necessary  to  oppose  such  force  as  could  be 
rallied  on  behoof  of  the  disliked  and  despised  Tzar.  An 
army  of  40,000  Russians  and  8000  Swedes,  under  the 
supreme  command  of  the  incompetent  Dimitri  Shouyskie, 
moved  west  towards  Smolensk.  They  did  not  get  far. 
Near  Mojhaysk  they  were  attacked  by  the  royal  hetman 
Jholkiewsko  on  the  morning  of  the  23rd  June  and  com- 
pletely defeated,  the  Moskovite  cavalry  breaking  at  the  first 
shock.i  The  German  troops  in  de  la  Gardie's  following 
deserted  to  the  enemy  early  in  the  battle  ;  "  the  Poles 
advanced  to  their  regiments  crying,  Kum  !  Kum  !  and  the 
Germans  came  flying   like  birds  to  a  call."^     The  tzarskie 

1  Kostomarov.  ^  S.  Solov'ev, 


298  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

voevodas,  Shouyskie,  Golitzuin,  and  Mezentzkie,  galloped 
away  into  the  forest,  the  first-named  leaving  his  baggage, 
money,  staff  of  command,  and  his  furs  in  the  hands  of  the 
victors.  De  la  Gardie,  regretting  more  than  ever  his  lost 
comrade,  surrendered  to  Jholkievvsko,  and  was  permitted  to 
return  with  his  diminished  battalions  to  the  north.  As  a 
result  of  this  decisive  encounter  Voloko-Lamsk,  the  losif 
monastery,  and  other  places  were  forced  to  submit  to  the 
Polish  commander.  In  the  capital  the  effect  was  to  hasten 
the  downfall  of  the  Shouyskie  dynasty.  The  brothers 
Prokopie  and  Zakhar  Liapounov,  Rurik-descended  nobles 
possessing  immense  influence  in  the  province  of  Riazin, 
stirred  up  the  Moskvitchi  to  depose  Vasili  on  the  ground 
that  his  rule  had  not  restored  peace  to  the  land  nor  checked 
the  spilling  of  Christian  blood.  The  city  was  in  a  ferment ; 
on  the  17th  of  July  the  ferment  came  to  a  head.  The 
kolokols  clanged  out  from  their  bell-towers  the  curfew  of  the 
reign  of  Vasili  Shouyskie,  as  they  had  sounded  the  death- 
knell  of  the  first  Ljhedimitri.  The  people,  Liapounov  led, 
surged  in  angry  crowds  from  one  point  to  another  ;  gathering 
first  beyond  the  Arbatskie  gate,  thence  to  the  Kreml,  where 
the  Tzar  vainly  endeavoured  to  recall  them  to  their  fealty, 
back  through  the  Red  Place,  they  finally  swarmed  outside 
the  Serpoukhovskie  gate.  There  the  assembled  citizens — 
boyarins,  clergy,  traders,  and  lesser  folk — decreed  that  the 
stop-gap  Tzar  must  go.  Vasili  bowed  before  the  storm  and 
departed  from  the  tzarskie  palace  to  his  hereditary  mansion. 
To  prevent  the  possibility  of  a  reaction  in  his  favour  (he 
was  known  to  be  distributing  money  among  the  Strielitz) 
he  was  seized  by  Zakhar  Liapounov  two  days  later  and 
forced  to  undergo  tonsure  and  frocking  in  the  monastery  of 
the  Ascension.  Thus  ignominiously  disappeared  the  last 
Tzar  of  the  line  of  S.  Vladimir.  The  government  of  the 
city  devolved  upon  a  council  of  boyarins  with  Thedor 
Mstislavskie  at  their  head  ;  this  was  naturally  only  a  pro- 
visional arrangement,  and  the  most  urgent  business  of  the 
new  Douma  was  to  take  steps  to  give  the  Moskovite  empire 
the  ruler  necessary  for  its  cohesion  and  administration.      The 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  299 

choice  lay  practically  between  two  evils  ;  on  the  one  hand 
was  the  exploited  and  discredited  "  Dimitri,"  with  his  follow- 
ing of  Don  Kozaks  and  bandits,  on  the  other  the  foreign 
Prince  Vladislav,  connected  by  birth  and  association  with 
Russia's  two  historically  hostile  neighbours.  The  common 
folk  and  peasants  were  ready  to  accept  the  former  and  shut 
their  eyes  to  the  gaps  in  the  evidence  connecting  him  with 
the  child  of  Ouglitch  ;  the  boyarins  and  upper  classes — the 
same  aristocracy  that  had  rebelled  with  pious  horror  against 
the  Polish  and  Catholic  taint  of  the  first  Ljhedimitri — turned 
their  thoughts  and  inclinations  more  and  more  towards  the 
son  of  Sigismund, 

Undoubtedly  the  near  neighbourhood  of  the  pretender 
(he  was  then  at  Kolomensk)  and  the  disposition  of  the 
people  in  his  favour  forced  the  hands  of  the  boyarins,  who 
feared  that  if  they  did  not  come  speedily  to  terms  with 
Vladislav  the  bestowal  of  the  crown  would  be  rudely  diverted 
from  their  disposal.  Their  anxiety  on  this  score 
smoothed  the  way  for  Jholkiewsko,  who  entered  into 
negotiations  from  his  camp  at  Mojhaysk  on  behalf  of  the 
Polish  candidature.  He  was  empowered  to  give  solemn 
assurances  for  the  upholding  of  the  Orthodox  religion,  and 
to  promise  a  share  of  the  administration  to  the  Douma, 
besides  guaranteeing  fair  trial  for  all  political  offenders.  In 
the  teeth  of  the  opposition  of  the  Patriarch,  and  without 
recourse  to  the  counsel  of  the  citizens  in  general,  still  less 
with  regard  to  the  voices  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  a  small 
group  of  the  Douma  boyarins,  Mstislavskie,  Golitzuin,  and 
Mezentzkie,  and  two  secretaries  of  council,  signed  the  treaty 
which  placed  the  throne  of  Moskovy  conditionally  at  the 
disposal  of  a  Polish  prince  (17th  August).  Four  years 
previously  the  Poles  had  been  hunted  down  like  wolves  in 
the  Kitai-gorod  and  Kreml,  now  the  guardians  of  the  State, 
fearing  a  popular  outburst  in  favour  of  "the  thief,"  were 
only  anxious  to  see  the  Polish  hetman  installed  with  his 
troops  in  the  capital.  As  a  precaution  against  another 
possible  revolution,  which  might  restore  Vasili  from  his 
cloister-prison    to   the    throne,    the   persons    of  the   deposed 


300  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

Tzar  and  his  brothers  were  handed  over  to  Jholkiewsko  and 
by  him  transmitted  to  Poland.  On  the  27th  of  August,  on 
the  road  half-way  between  Moskva  and  the  Polish  camp, 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Vladislav  was  sworn  by  a  large 
number  of  the  citizens  and  boyarins,  and  the  example  of  the 
capital  was  followed  by  the  provincial  towns  of  Souzdal, 
Vladimir,  Rostov,  and  others.  A  lingering  hope  on  the 
part  of  the  Russians  that  the  new  Tzar  would  adopt  the 
Orthodox  religion  caused  a  hitch  in  the  progress  of  the 
negotiations,  and  a  large  embassy,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
the  Rostov  Metroplitan,  Filarete  Romanov,  and  the  kniaz 
Golitzuin,  set  out  to  wait  upon  Sigismund  at  his  camp 
before  Smolensk,  which  city  still  held  out  against  his  attack. 
The  anxiety  of  the  leading  boyarins  to  complete  a  political 
manoeuvre  with  which  they  had  already  gone  too  far  to  draw 
back,  led  them  to  take  a  step  which  left  them  no  power  to 
enforce  their  demands.  The  doubtful  proposals  of  the  Polish 
king,  who  began  to  covet  the  Russian  crown  for  himself,  had 
aroused  strong  symptoms  of  patriotic  sedition  in  the  capital, 
and  the  Douma,  having  for  the  moment  appeased  the 
irritated  citizens,  invited  Jholkiewsko  to  bring  his  troops  into 
Moskva.  On  the  night  of  the  20th  September  the  stroke  was 
effected,  and  the  people  awoke  next  morning  to  find  the  Poles 
quietly  established  in  the  Kreml,  Kitai-gorod,  and  White-town. 
With  a  garrison  at  Moskva  and  others  in  some  of  the 
provincial  towns,  Sigismund  felt  certain  of  securing  the 
crown  of  Monomachus,  which  it  was  now  his  object  to  obtain 
for  himself.  The  voevoda  and  citizens  of  Smolensk,  though 
ready  to  kiss  the  cross  to  Vladislav,  still  stubbornly  defended 
their  walls  against  the  King,  who  had  announced  his  intention 
of  annexing  the  town  to  Poland.  The  Moskovite  am- 
bassadors stoutly  refused  to  agree  to  this  projected  dismember- 
ment, but  in  the  extraordinary  state  of  affairs  they  were 
unable  to  make  any  show  of  relieving  the  place.  Since  the 
days  of  the  Mongol  servitude  Russia  had  not  been  in  such 
a  humiliating  position.  In  the  north  a  new  trouble  arose?; 
the  King  of  Sweden,  seeing  his  ally  Vasili  deposed  and 
Vladislav  of  Poland  elected  in   his  place,  changed  his  good 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  301 

relations  with  the  gosoudarstvo  into  open  hostility,  and  sent 
an  invading  force  into  Russian  territory.  The  northern 
voevodas,  divided  in  their  allegiance  between  the  pretender 
and  the  Pole,  offered  an  ineffective  resistance  to  the  Swedes, 
and  Ladoga  and  Ivangorod  fell  into  their  hands.  Meanwhile 
the  weeks  dragged  on  in  lengthened  negotiations,  and  the 
royal  camp  before  Smolensk  was  the  scene  of  as  many 
intrigues  and  self-seeking  subserviencies  as  had  distinguished 
the  impostor's  Court  at  Toushin.  An  unlooked-for  event 
towards  the  close  of  the  year  rid  Sigismund  of  a  rival 
and  the  Moskovites  of  an  embarrassment.  The  false 
Dimitri,  decoyed  out  hare-hunting  on  to  the  steppes  by  a 
Tartar  who  nursed  against  him  a  private  enmity,  was  nth  Dec. 
murdered  on  the  lonely  plain  ;  his  death  broke  up  the  camp 
at  Kalouga,  despite  the  efforts  of  the  twice-widowed  Marina 
to  form  a  party  on  behalf  of  her  infant  son  Ivan.  For  the 
most  part  the  malcontents  gave  in  their  adhesion  to  the 
elected  Tzar  Vladislav.  Sigismund  had  now  no  further 
excuse  for  prolonging  the  uncertainties  and  anxieties  of  an 
interregnum  in  a  country  already  suffering  from  the  effects 
of  a  long  period  of  anarchy  and  revolution  ;  his  object 
seemed  to  be,  however,  to  weary  the  Moskovites  into  an 
unconditional  acceptance  of  his  rule.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  troubles  he  had  played  an  ungenerous  part  and 
sown  a  fresh  crop  of  bitter  animosities  between  the  two  Slav 
nations — a  crop  which  was  to  yield  a  rueful  harvest  to 
Poland.  Threatened  with  a  hostile  league  between  Moskovy 
and  Sweden,  it  was  but  natural  that  he  should  view  with 
satisfaction  the  dawning  of  internal  troubles  in  the  former 
State,  natural  perhaps  that  he  should  give  underhand  support 
to  the  two  successive  impostors  ;  natural  also  that  he  should 
attempt  to  secure  for  his  son  or  himself  the  eastern  Slav 
sovereignty.  But  the  double-dealing  and  hypocrisy  which 
marked  his  policy  towards  the  Russian  nation,  before  whom 
he  posed  as  a  friend  and  deliverer,  while  seeking  to  filch 
from  its  weakness  an  important  frontier  city,  was  scarcely 
worthy  of  the  great  House  of  Vasa,  which  was  about  to 
present  to  Europe  so  splendid  a  warrior. 


302  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

In  long-suffering  Moskva  murmurs  began  to  be  heard 
against  the  Poles  and  against  the  Jesuits,  and  hints  of 
armed  opposition  to  Vladislav  were  wafted  about  the 
country.  The  Patriarch  Hermogen,  irritated  by  the  sound 
of  Latin  chants  in  the  high  places  of  Orthodoxy,  sedulously 
fanned  the  smouldering  spirit  of  revolt  and  became  so  out- 
spoken in  his  exhortations  that  he  was  seized  by  the  Poles 
in  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption  and  placed  in  confine- 
ment. Released  on  Palm  Sunday  in  order  to  take  his  place 
astride  an  ass  in  the  customary  procession,  he  was  soon 
afterwards  sent  back  to  his  captivity  and  displaced  from  the 
Patriarchal  throne,  which  was  filled  by  the  counter-Patriarch 
Ignasie  ;  the  third,  counting  Filarete  Romanov,  who  disputed 
that  office.  If  the  State  was  without  a  head,  the  Church 
enjoyed  in  that  respect  a  Cerberus-like  superfluity.  This 
persecution  of  their  Vladuika  did  not  dispose  the  people 
more  favourably  towards  the  Poles ;  Liapounov  began  to 
collect  troops  in  the  Riazan  country,  and  in  the  capital  an 
outbreak  between  the  citizens  and  foreign  garrison  was  only 
1611  a  matter  of  opportunity.  In  Passion  week  the  tension  be- 
tween the  two  elements  found  vent  in  a  massacre,  but  on 
this  occasion  it  was  the  Poles  who  set  on  foot  the  butchery. 
Mistaking  an  accidental  brawl  for  a  preconcerted  rising,  the 
hetman's  troops,  including  the  Germans  serving  under  him, 
attacked  the  defenceless  inhabitants  of  the  Kreml  and  Kitai- 
gorod  and  slew,  by  all  accounts,  some  7000  men.  The 
alarm  spread  into  the  Biel-gorod,  where  the  people,  under 
the  direction  of  Kniaz  Pojharskie,  prepared  to  resist  the 
foreigners.  The  streets  were  hastily  barricaded  with  timber 
and  furniture,  and  furious  fighting  went  on  round  the  several 
gates  of  the  Kitai-gorod,  while  flames  broke  forth  in  various 
quarters.  The  city  was  soon  a  blazing  mass,  and  amid  the 
roar  and  crash  of  conflagration  the  Poles  were  driven  back 
on  all  sides  into  the  Kitai-gorod  and  Kreml.  Pojharskie, 
wounded  in  the  fray,  was  carried  to  the  Troitza  monastery, 
which  became  a  base  of  operations  for  the  Russians,  who 
held  the  Biel-gorod  and  all  the  approaches  to  the  city.  The 
situation   of  the  garrison    during   the   Dis-like  night   which 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  303 

succeeded  the  furious  day  has  been  vividly  pictured  by  the 
historian  of  Moskva.  "  Darkly  gazed  the  Poles  from  the 
walls  of  the  Kreml  and  Kitai-gorod  on  the  burnt  ashes  of 
Moskva,  awaiting  the  arming  people  and  listening  through 
the  night  to  the  howling  of  dogs,  that  gnawed  human 
bones."  ^  For  days  the  city  blazed,  and  within  their 
quarters  the  foreign  soldiery  plundered  and  ransacked  the 
houses  of  boyarins  and  merchants.  Outside,  the  Moskvitchi, 
swarming  like  burnt -out  bees,  were  reinforced  by  drafts 
of  Liapounov's  Riazan  levies.  The  arrival  of  the  chief 
Zaroutzkie  with  a  following  of  Don  Kozaks  was  a  source  of 
weakness  rather  than  strength,  and  the  quarrels  of  the  ill- 
disciplined  children  of  the  steppes  with  the  Riazan  troops 
served  to  inflame  the  jealousy  existing  between  their 
respective  leaders.  While  the  wardens  of  Polish  occupation 
were  being  hemmed  within  the  walls  of  the  Russian  citadel, 
Sigismund  was  steadily  discharging  his  cannon  against  the 
battered  bulwarks  of  Smolensk.  On  the  3rd  of  June  a 
breach  was  effected  and  the  city  won.  The  voevoda  Shein 
defended  himself  with  a  small  body  of  men  in  a  tower,  and 
only  surrendered  on  a  promise  of  the  King's  mercy.  The 
mercy  of  Sigismund  Vasa  might  be  likened  to  the  "  gentle 
dew  from  Heaven  "  only  in  the  sense  of  a  tendency  to  rapid 
evaporation,  and  neither  his  sense  of  honour  nor  a  regard  for 
brave  constancy  came  to  the  rescue  ;  the  man  who  had  held 
his  forces  so  long  at  bay  was  put  to  the  torture  and  after- 
wards dispatched  in  fetters  to  a  Lit'uanian  prison.  This 
besmirched  victory  was  celebrated  by  a  triumphant  entry 
into  Warszawa,  graced  by  the  presence,  in  the  King's  train, 
of  the  befrocked  and  discrowned  Tzar,  Vasili  Shouyskie. 
According  to  the  Russian  historians,  who  see  the  trail  of 
Jesuit  intrigue  throughout  the  duration  of  the  Troubles,  this 
success  of  the  Poles  had  the  significance  of  a  Papal  triumph. 
"  The  success  of  Poland  over  Russia  brought  joy  to  all  the 
Catholic  world.  In  Rome  festival  succeeded  festival."  - 
Rome  was  thankful  for  small  mercies  in  those  days.  The 
King  found  it  easier  to  celebrate  his  victory  than  to  follow  it 

1  Iz  htorie  Moskvui.  -  Kostomarov. 


304  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

up  by  any  vigorous  action  against  the  Russians  who  were  in 
armed  opposition  to  his  son's  pretensions  to  the  throne. 
The  gosoudarstvo  at  this  moment  was  in  a  state  of  bewilder- 
ing chaos,  and  nowhere  could  be  seen  the  elements  of  re- 
organisation. Around  the  Pole-held  inner  city  of  Moskva 
was  quartered  an  army  of  some  100,000  men,  strielitz, 
dieti-boyarins  and  their  followings,  and  Don  Kozaks,  the 
whole  under  the  separate  leadership  of  three  voevodas, 
Prokope  Liapounov,  Dimitri  Troubetzkoi,  and  Zaroutzkie. 
Besides  the  personal  jealousy  which  existed  between  the 
leaders,  it  was  impossible  to  say  what  common  cause,  except 
the  negative  one  of  opposition  to  Vladislav,  brought  and 
held  their  forces  together.  There  was  not  even  a  phantom 
to  set  against  the  claim  of  the  Polish  prince.  It  almost 
seems  as  if,  like  the  Germans  who  nursed  the  legend  that 
their  Red  King  still  slept  in  his  Untersberg  and  would  come 
forth  with  all  his  knights  in  the  hour  of  his  country's  greatest 
need,    the    Moskovites    persistently    hoped     that     the    real  5 

Dimitri  would  at  last  emerge  from  his  obscurity  and  give 
Russia  once  more  an  Orthodox  sovereign.  Beyond  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  capital,  confusion  and 
uncertainty  were  naturally  intensified  ;  no  town  knew  whom 
to  acknowledge  and  could  at  most  only  defend  itself  against 
the  attacks  of  the  plundering  bands  which  swarmed  every- 
where. The  inhabitants  of  Vclikie-Novgorod,  in  the  midst 
of  their  indecision,  were  suddenly  startled  by  the  arrival 
before  their  gates  of  a  Swedish  army  under  de  la  Gardie, 
who  demanded  their  allegiance  to  Karl,  his  king.  The  old 
spirit  of  the  Novgorodskie  answered  defiance  to  their  old 
enemies,  and  the  Swedes  were  held  awhile  in  check  ;  on  the 
1611  night  of  the  i6th  July,  however,  de  la  Gardie  was  admitted 
by  treachery  into  the  town,  and  effected  his  entrance  so 
stealthily  that  the  citizens  first  learned  of  the  unexpected 
stroke  by  seeing  the  Swedish  guards  patrolling  the  walls. 
After  a  faint  attempt  at  resistance  the  city  submitted  with 
as  good  grace  as  was  possible  to  the  Swedish  occupation, 
and  swore  fealty  to  Karl-Filip,  the  King's  second  son,  as 
their    sovereign.      Meanwhile     the     army     around     Moskva 


X  THE  PHANTOM  TZAR  305 


showed  serious  signs  of  breaking  up  in  confusion.  A  forged 
letter,  supposed  to  have  been  concocted  by  the  Poles,  calling 
upon  the  Moskovites  to  destroy  the  Kozaks  and  signed  with 
the  name  of  Liapounov,  was  found  in  Zaroutzkie's  camp. 
Despite  his  denial  of  the  authorship,  the  enraged  Kozaks 
hewed  the  voevoda  down  with  their  sabres,  a  deed  which 
increased  the  ill-feeling  and  distrust  with  which  the  country 
people  and  citizens  regarded  them. 

In  this  deplorable  condition  did  the  waning  of  the  year 
find  the  Russian  land ;  the  capital  in  the  hands  of  the 
Polish  enemy,  its  outskirts  and  slobodas  infested  with 
scarcely  more  welcome  Kozaks  ;  Smolensk  and  the  towns  of 
the  Sieverski  country  held  by  Poles  ;  bands  of  Poles  and 
Dniepr  Kozaks  ravaging  and  slaying  in  the  western  villages  ; 
Great  Novgorod,  Ladoga,  and  the  cities  of  the  Finnish  Gulf 
in  Swedish  thrall  ;  freebooters  and  robber  gangs  everywhere. 
To  crown  all,  there  descended  on  the  stricken  inhabitants  a 
winter  of  frightful  severity,  and  many  of  the  homeless  out- 
casts died  of  cold  and  hunger  in  the  roads  and  fields. 

S.  Solov'ev  ;  Kostomarov  ;  Iz  htorie  Moskviii ;  Pierling. 


I 


CHAPTER    XI 


"  THIS    SIDE    THE    HILL 


)> 


In    the    midst   of    Russia's    direst    despondency,    when    the 
throne  of  Monomachus  was  empty  and  the  lawful  Patriarch 
starving   in    prison,    and    when    the   tombs   and    temples    of 
Moskva's    sacred    past    were    profaned    by   the    unhallowed 
presence  of  strangers  and  heretics,  within   the  scarred  walls 
of  the  Troitza  the  lamp  of  Orthodoxy  and   national  inde- 
pendence was  kept  steadily  burning.      The  hegumen  Dionosie. 
as  bitter  a  foe  of  Catholicism  as  any  of  the  Reformers  who 
were  convulsing  Western  Europe  in  their  struggle  with  Rome, 
ceased  not  to  call  to  his  fellow-Russians  to  unite  against  the 
foreign    enemy,   and    save   alike   the   true    religion    and    the 
empire.      Like  the  cry  of  the  figurative  pelican  re-echoing 
through    the    wilderness,    the    warlike    summons    from    the 
Troitza  passed  along  the  wasted   land  ;  and   met  at  length 
with    response.       The   city    of    Nijhnie- Novgorod,    advan- 
tageously   situated    at    the    confluence    of    the   Volga    with 
the  Oka,  had,  since  the  reduction  of  Kazan  and  the  decline 
of  the   Tartar    power,  advanced    greatly  in    prosperity  and 
importance.      At  a  moment  when  Moskva,  Velikie-Novgorod, 
and  Novgorod-Sieverski  were  in  alien  hands  the  eastern  city 
stood  forth  with  enhanced   prominence  as  the  rallying-point 
of  Russian  freedom,  and  it  was  here  that  the  exhortations 
and  entreaties  of  the  Troitza  hegumen  were  most  effective. 
As  was  usual  in   times  of  popular  commotion,  visions  and 
portents  were  not  wanting,  and  the  religious  enthusiasm  of 
the  people  was  wrought  up  to  a  high  pitch.     The  anger  of 
heaven,  it  was  said,  as  the  noise  of  these  apparitions  was 


CHAP.  XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  307 

spread  from  town  to  town  and  from  monastery  to  monastery, 
had  been  visited  on  the  land  on  account  of  the  sins  of  its 
inhabitants  ;  the  Russian  people  had  lightly  sworn  allegiance 
to  successive  sovereigns,  and  had  as  lightly  shed  their  blood  or 
driven  them  from  the  throne.  Impious  hands  had  been  raised 
against  the  Lord's  anointed  —  hence  these  afflictions.  It 
was  decreed  that  before  the  work  of  liberation  could  be 
begun  the  people  should  purge  themselves  of  their  iniquities 
by  a  solemn  and  universal  fast ;  for  three  days  every  one  was 
to  abstain  from  food,  even  the  infants  at  the  breast,  though 
what  measure  of  political  responsibility  could  be  brought 
home  to  the  latter  for  the  intrigues  and  revolutions  of  the 
past  five  years  it  would  be  difficult  to  say.  The  ideal  of  a 
God  is  usually  that  of  a  being  who  derives  some  not  very 
comprehensible  satisfaction  from  the  contemplation  of  self- 
inflicted  sacrifice  or  suffering  of  some  sort,  and  it  was  quite 
in  keeping  with  accepted  ideas  that  the  only  remedy  for 
the  misery  of  a  nation  was — more  suffering.  At  Nijhnie- 
Novgorod  the  patriotic  upheaval  produced  more  than 
unstable  visions  of  the  night,  it  brought  to  the  surface  of 
political  action  a  man  ;  princes  and  boyarins  there  were  as 
usual,  and  some  among  them  doubtless  men  of  ability,  but 
the  most  remarkable  figure  in  the  group  of  Nijhniegorodskie 
regenerators  was  one  of  humbler  extraction,  torn  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  time  from  his  normal  rank  in  life,  like 
a  low-growing  ocean-weed  uprooted  by  the  action  of  some 
violent  pelagic  disturbance.  Kozma  Minin  -  Soukhorouk, 
who  arose  as  the  apostle  of  the  movement  which  had  started 
into  being  in  response  to  the  beacon  blaze  from  the  Troitza, 
was  a  provincial  starosta,^  and  by  trade  a  cattle-dealer  or, 
according  to  some  accounts,  a  butcher.  Like  the  peasant- 
girl  of  Domremy,  his  certificate  for  assuming  the  direction 
of  affairs  usually  yielded  to  those  of  higher  station  was  a 
supernatural  "  call "  ;  S.  Sergie  had  appeared  to  him  and 
entrusted  him  with  the  task  of  arousing  the  slumbering 
consciences  and  national  ardour  of  the  Russian  folk.      Having 

1  Answering  to  the  Saxon  reeve  ;  in  towns  mayor  or  baillie,  of  lesser  import- 
ance than  a  posadnik. 


3o8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


convinced   his  fellow -men  of  the   sacredness  of  the   cause, 
Minin  proceeded  to  convert  their  enthusiasm  into  practical 
support  of  its  furtherance.      "  Give  "  was  the  cry,  give  every- 
one, and   give   to    depletion  ;    goods,    money,    service,   were 
asked   of  all,  and   those  who   had   restricted    ideas  on   the 
subject  were  brought  into  line  by  forced  contributions.      The 
emerged  cattle-dealer,  though  good  enough  as  an  awakening 
influence,  was  scarcely  fitted  to  conduct  a  campaign  against 
the  war-seasoned  Polish  troops,  and  the  soldiery  clamoured 
for  a  voevoda  in  whom  they  might  have  confidence.      Such 
a    one  was  forthcoming   in   Kniaz    Dimitri    Pojharskie,  still 
weak  from  the  wound   he  had  received  in  the  fight  around 
Moskva,  and  under  his  command  an  army  was  formed  which 
only  delayed    taking   the  field   till  it  should    have  received 
sufficient  support  in  men  and  money  from  the  neighbouring 
1612  lands.      Not  till  the  end  of  April  were  the  equipped  forces 
ready  to  march,  and  by  that  time  new  dangers  had  begun 
to  crop  up  like  noxious  weeds  on  a  land  that  had  too  long 
lain    fallow    of   settled    government.      The    Kozaks    around 
Moskva  had  begun  to  talk  of  Marina's  infant  as  the  rightful 
heir  to  the  throne,  while  at   Ivangorod  had  arisen   another 
phantom     Dimitri,    Ljhedimitri    III.,    who    had    established 
himself  at  Pskov.      It  was  time  for  the  army  of  regeneration 
to  be   moving,  though  what  it  "  carried  in  its  stomach "  was 
difficult    to   foreshadow.      With    the    melting    of   the   snows 
Pojharskie   unfurled    his   standard,  blazoned  with   a  swarthy 
eastern  Christ  and  thickly  bestrewn  with  inscriptions,  and  led 
his  troops  towards  Moskva.      Vague  as  his  political  objective 
was,  his  crusade  attracted  adherents.      At  Kostroma,  which 
a  Russian   kniaz  held  in  the  name  of  Vladislav,  the  people 
had    arisen    and    declared    themselves    for    Pojharskie.      At 
Yaroslavl  the  citizens  came  forth  to  welcome  the  approaching 
army,  with  ikons  and  provisions  and  gifts  for  the  voevoda  in 
command.      It  seemed   probable  that  a   Dimitri    might   yet 
mount    the   throne   of    Monomachus.       Here,    however,   the 
onward  movement  came  to  a  sudden  halt ;    Pojharskie  was 
unwilling    to    lead    his    men    direct    upon    Moskva,    where 
Zaroutzkie  and  his  Kozaks  were  encamped,  lest  they  should 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  " 


309 


be  seduced,  from  sheer  lack  of  alternative,  to  give  in  their 
allegiance  to  the  adventuress  Marina  and  her  child,  on  whose 
behalf  the  Kozak  leader  was  working.  Pojharskie  in  fact, 
in  the  helplessness  of  a  negative  undertaking,  was  waiting 
upon  Providence,  and  was  not  loth  to  receive  the  proposals 
which  came  from  Velikie- Novgorod  for  the  election  of  the 
King  of  Sweden's  brother  to  the  tzarstvo.  (Karl  IX.  had 
died  in  the  winter,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son, 
Gustav-Adolf,  brother  of  Karl-Filip.)  But  here  again  the 
double-edged  difficulty  arose  which  confronted  every 
attempted  solution  of  the  succession  problem  ;  the  House 
of  Moskva,  since  the  extinction  of  the  independent  Russian 
principalities  and  the  disappearance  of  the  Paleologi,  was 
the  only  reigning  family  in  Europe  which  professed  the 
Greek  faith,  and  with  the  dying  out  of  the  Ivanovitch  line 
the  supply  of  Orthodox  Princes  of  the  Blood  came  to  an  end. 
Hence  the  Russians  must  either  submit  to  the  elevation  of 
a  Tzar  from  the  boyarin  ranks,  or  persuade  some  foreign 
prince  to  adopt  the  indispensable  dogmas.  Pojharskie  met 
the  proposals  of  the  Novgorodskie  and  Swedish  agents  with 
an  inquiry  on  this  matter  of  religion,  and  professed  himself 
willing,  if  satisfied  in  this  respect,  to  accept  Karl-Filip's 
candidature.  It  was  doubtful,  however,  if  the  Lutheran 
Vasa  would  be  more  open  to  embrace  Orthodoxy  than  his 
Catholic  cousin  had  shown  himself,  and  meanwhile,  from  the 
Troitza  and  the  capital,  kept  coming  urgent  expostulations 
as  to  the  dangerous  stagnation  on  the  part  of  the  Russian 
vanguard.  In  July  Pojharskie  at  last  put  his  troops  in 
motion  and  moved  slowly  towards  Moskva,  but  turned  aside 
from  the  army  at  Rostov  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  the 
Souzdalskie  monastery  of  the  Saviour,  where  reposed  the 
bones  of  his  ancestors.  The  campaign  was  suddenly 
quickened  out  of  its  irresolute  lethargy  by  the  news  that  the 
hetman  Khodkievitch  was  approaching  Moskva  with  a  relief 
force  and  the  much-needed  supplies  for  the  Polish  garrison. 
The  Russian  voevoda,  still  holding  aloof  from  the  Kozak 
encampment,  threw  his  forces  into  the  western  end  of  the 
Biel-gorod,  leaving  to  Zaroutzkie  the  eastern   quarter  con- 


3IO  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

fronting  the  walls  of  the  Kitai-gorod.  On  the  22  nd  August 
the  Lit'uanian  army  appeared  on  the  western  approaches  of 
thecity,and  a  wild  scrambling  engagement  ensued,  Pojharskie's 
soldiery  and  the  strielitz  defending  their  lines  from  the 
attacks  of  the  relieving  force  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  sorties 
of  the  Polish  garrison  on  the  other,  while  the  Kozaks  re- 
mained for  the  most  part  inactive.  Along  the  banks  of  the 
Moskva  on  the  south,  at  the  Tverskie  gate  on  the  north- 
west, under  the  ramparts  of  the  Kreml,  and  beneath  the 
western  walls  of  the  Biel-gorod  the  combat  was  hotly  waged, 
and  evening  found  the  Russians  still  interposed  between  the 
besieged  and  their  succours.  After  a  lull  of  a  day's  duration 
the  fighting  was  resumed  at  daybreak  on  the  24th ;  the 
hetman's  forces  came  into  collision  with  Zaroutzkie's  Kozaks, 
and  the  freebooters  of  the  Dniepr  found  themselves  opposed 
by  their  fellows  of  the  Don.  The  Russians,  if  fighting  with- 
out cohesion,  had  the  advantage  of  numbers  and  position, 
and  the  Poles  were  hampered  by  the  baggage  train  which  it 
was  their  object  to  convoy  through  the  enemy's  lines  into 
the  Kreml.  At  mid-day,  after  having  suffered  enormously 
in  his  repeated  attempts  to  force  a  passage  through  the 
Biel-gorod,  Khodkievitch  drew  off  his  discomfited  forces  and 
retired  to  the  Vorob'ev  mountains,  leaving  his  baggage  and 
provision  train  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Four  days  later 
he  retreated  towards  Lit'uania.  The  effect  of  this  national 
victory  was  to  infuse  more  spirit  into  the  measures  taken  to 
dislodge  the  Poles  from  the  citadel  ;  ill-feeling  and  suspicion 
still  existed  between  the  various  elements  composing  the 
blockading  army,  but  the  leaders  were  at  least  able  to 
arrange  a  concerted  plan  of  action  against  the  beleaguered 
garrison.  The  latter,  who  had  seen  with  sinking  hearts  the 
Polish  standards  fade  away  down  the  Moskva  valley,  held 
out  for  some  time  against  the  assaults  and  summonses  of 
their  attackers,  notwithstanding  the  sufferings  they  endured 
from  lack  of  sufficient  provisions.  The  stories  recounted  of 
parents  feeding  on  the  flesh  of  their  children  were  probably 
exaggerations,  and  the  starving  to  death  of  the  hapless 
Patriarch    Hermogen    early  in    the  year  was  a   measure  of 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  311 

severity  rather  than  necessity,  but  the  defenders  and  their 
Russian  prisoners  were  undoubtedly  in  sore  straits,  and  their 
surrender,    unless    relieved,    a    mere    matter    of    time.       In 
October  the  Kozaks  under  Troubetzkoi  stormed  the  Kitai- 
gorod  and  drove  the  hunger-weakened  Poles  into  the  Kreml. 
Two    days   later   (24th    October)   the   garrison  let  down  a 
bridge  over  the   Neglina  stream  and  disgorged  a  crowd  of 
prisoners,  among    them    Thedor    Mstislavskie,    Ivan    Voro- 
tuinskie,  and    the   young    Mikhail    Thedorovitch    Romanov. 
The  unruly  Kozaks  rushed  to  plunder  the  outcasts,  and  were 
with    difficulty    held    back    by    the    country    regiments    of 
Pojharskie.      On  the  25  th  the  Polish  eagle  was  lowered  from 
the  towers  of  the   Kreml,  the  gates  were  thrown  open,  and 
the  Russians  marched  with   triumph  into  their  long-sealed 
citadel.       Their    Patriarch    was    dead    and    there    was    none 
whom  they  could  call  Tzar,  but  with  pathetic  eagerness  they 
ran  to  prostrate  themselves  before  their  restored  Bogoroditza 
of  Vladimir.     For  the  most  part  the  lives  of  the  Poles  were 
respected,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  but  many 
of  those  who  were  unfortunate  enough  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Kozaks  were  butchered  by  those  fierce  irregulars,  who, 
now  that  the  binding  tie  of  a  common   military  task  was 
loosened,  were  more  than  ever  a  thorn   in  the  side  of  the 
Moskovites.      Helping  themselves  to  plunder  and  demanding 
pay,   they   threatened    to    turn    their   weapons   against   the 
citizens  and  country  troops,  and  the  capital  seemed  likely  to 
become  the  scene  of  renewed  bloodshed.     In  the  midst  of 
these  feuds  and  disorders  Moskva  was  suddenly  agitated  by 
the    intelligence   that    the    King   of  Poland    in    person    was 
marching  against  it  with  a  large  army.      This  was  only  half 
a  truth ;   Sigismund  had   indeed    made   a   tardy  movement 
towards  the  succour  of  his   Polish   outpost  in   the  Russian 
capital,  but  neither  Poland  nor  Lit'uania  had  furnished  him 
with  the  necessary  forces.     Valuable  time  was  lost  at  Vilna 
and  at  Smolensk  without  any  resulting  increase  in  the  King's 
army,  and  in  October  he  was  obliged  to  move  forward  with 
only   3000  German  troops,  of  whom    2000  were    infantry. 
A  junction  effected  with  the  retreating  remnant  of  Khod- 


312  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

kievitch's  forces  did  not  materially  strengthen  his  following, 
and  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  the  Kreml   put  a  finishing 
touch  to  the  hopes  of  the  expedition.      An  ineffectual  assault 
on  Voloko-Lamsk  completed  the  Polish  monarch's  discom- 
fiture, and  soon  after  the  Moskvitchi  learned  that  their  enemy 
had  withdrawn  across  the  border.     The  Russian   land  was 
free  from  the  invader,  and  the  Russian   people  had  liberty 
and  leisure  to  set  about  the  important  task  of  electing  a  new 
sovereign,  and  evolving  a  new  dynasty  from  the  chaos  and 
wreckage  which  had  attended  the  disappearance  of  the  old 
one.      In  the  dark  winter  days  which  followed  the  capture  of 
the  Kreml,  when  anger  and  fear  and  suspicion,  rumour-bred 
or  founded  on   past  experiences  of  trouble,  had  sharpened 
the   minds   of  the  citizens,  an    idea  had    sprung   up  which 
seemed  to  be  flavoured  at  least  with  hope.     As  a  door  had 
suddenly  opened  in  the  Kreml  wall  and  given  egress  for  a 
crowd    of   eagerly -escaping    hostages,    so,    from    that    very 
circumstance,  a  way  seemed  opened  as  an  outlet  for  Russian 
perplexities    and    troubles.     Among    the    throng   who   had 
pressed    across    the    gangway    over    the    Neglina    was    the 
sixteen-year-old  Mikhail  Romanov,  son  of  the  Metropolitan 
"  Filarete,"  and  grandson  of  Nikita  Romanovitch,  whose  sister 
Anastasie    had    been    the    first   wife    of    Ivan    the   Terrible. 
Here  was  a  representative  of  a  family  which  furnished  a  link 
with  the  vanished  dynasty,  and  which  at  the  same  time  had 
no  untoward  reminiscences  in   its  past  history  to  cloud  the 
affections  of  the  people.      If  the  Romanovs  had  rendered  no 
striking   services    to    the   country,   at    least    there   were   no 
skeletons  of  Ouglitch,  no   records  of  extortion   and  faction - 
mongering    to    reproach    them    with.       Standing    near    the 
throne,  they  had  never  seemed  to  scheme  for  its  possession, 
and    if    the    citizens   and    country-folk    alike    turned    their 
thoughts     towards    young    Mikhail    it    was    a    spontaneous 
movement,  innocent  of  the   influences    by  means  of  which 
Boris  Godounov  and  Vasili   Shouyskie  had  engineered  their 
elections.       Nor  was  the  young  boyarin   devoid    of  recom- 
mendatory   qualities,    though     these    were    naturally    of    a 
negative  order  ;   but  lately  a  prisoner  in   the  hands  of  the 


\ 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE   THE  HILL  "  313 


Poles,  as  his  father  was  still  (Thedor  Romanov  had  visited 
the  cradle  of  his  race  under  inauspicious  circumstances, 
having  been  seized  and  carried  as  a  prisoner  to  Marienburg 
at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities),  he  was  scarcely  likely  to  have 
leanings  towards  Polish  and  Catholic  ideas.  His  connection 
with  the  elder  family  branch  of  Ivan  IV.  precluded  him 
from  sympathy  with  the  Nagois  and  the  brood  of  impostors 
which  sprang  up  in  mock  relationship  with  them,  and  equally 
he  was  free  from  any  taint  of  political  association  with 
Zaroutzkie  and  the  partisans  of  Marina.  The  people  saw 
in  his  parentage  a  relic  of  the  old  reigning  family,  in  his 
youth  perhaps  a  reminiscence  of  his  namesake,  their  beloved 
Skopin-Shouyskie,  and  they  forgave  him  the  fact  that  the 
blood  of  Rurik  did  not  flow  in  his  veins.  As  the  dieti- 
boyarins  and  starostas,  the  archimandrites  of  monasteries 
and  other  church  dignitaries,  and  all  the  various  country 
representatives  came  flocking  into  Moskva  to  the  national 
electoral  sobor,  one  name  was  heard  on  every  side ;  and 
when,  in  "  Orthodox  Week  "  of  the  great  Lent,  the  Arch-  1613 
bishop  of  Riazan,  attended  by  the  archimandrite  of  the 
Novo-Spasskie,  the  cellarer  of  the  Troitza,  and  the  boyarin 
Morozov,  proceeded  to  the  high  place  of  execution  and  put 
the  question  of  the  choice  to  the  assemblage  crowded  in  the 
Red  Square,  one  name  was  thundered  back  from  a  gaping 
chorus  of  throats.  "  Mikhail  Thedorovitch  Romanov."  The 
Time  of  the  Troubles  had  ended. 

Hymns  of  jubilation  arose  in  the  temples,  the  kolokols 
sounded  from  one  end  of  Moskva  to  the  other,  and  the 
great  city  and  its  influx  of  country-folk  rejoiced  at  having 
once  more  a  holy  and  Orthodox  sovereign.  But  much 
remained  to  be  done  ere  the  new  state  of  things  was  settled 
on  a  firm  footing  ;  Zaroutzkie  and  his  Kozaks,  driven  out  of 
the  capital,  plundered  and  ravaged  in  the  south-east ;  the 
Poles  and  Swedes  threatened  the  west  and  north-west,  free- 
booters, unattached  to  any  party,  rode  in  marauding  troops 
everywhere.  The  situation  was  alarming  enough  to  deter 
any  but  the  most  adventurous  from  challenging  its  outcome, 
and  when   the  ambassadors  from   the  sobor  came,  with  the 


314  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

news  of  Mikhail's  election,  to  the  Ipat'evskie  monastery  at 
Kostroma,  whither  the  young  boyarin  had  retired  with  his 
mother,  they  found  the  latter  reluctant  to  sanction  her  son's 
acceptance  of  the  offer.  Her  husband  was  a  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  the  Poles,  and  her  boy  was  now  called  upon  to 
brave  the  fate  which  had  brought  to  a  violent  end  the 
younger  Godounov,  and  perhaps  his  father,  had  lured  on 
and  destroyed  both  the  False  Dimitris,  and  had  sent  Vasili 
Shouyskie  to  a  dishonoured  captivity.  When  she  at  length 
yielded  to  their  insistence  other  difficulties  stood,  literally, 
in  the  way.  The  Tzar-elect  was  constrained  to  halt  for 
several  weeks  at  Yaroslavl,  on  his  journey  to  Moskva,  by 
reason  of  the  swarming  bands  of  Kozaks  and  Polish  adherents 
which  infested  the  roads,  and  made  travelling  unsafe  for  any 
party  smaller  than  an  army.  At  length  on  the  2nd  of  May 
the  long-looked-for  cavalcade  arrived,  and  the  young  Mikhail 
was  triumphantly  conducted  into  the  Kreml  which  he  had 
left  under  such  different  circumstances.  Nine  weeks  later 
(iith  July)  the  ceremony  of  the  coronation  took  place  in 
the  Ouspienskie  Cathedral  with  the  customary  pomp  and 
time-honoured  usages.  The  revered  ikons  of  the  Mother-of- 
God  of  Vladimir  and  the  Mother-of-God  of  Kazan  duly 
made  their  appearance  on  the  scene,  like  the  "  male  and 
female  phoenix,  entering  with  solemn  gambollings,"  which 
formed  an  auspicious  feature  in  the  festivals  of  Chinese 
Court  mythology.  But  the  throes  of  revolution  had  left  the 
tzarstvo  weak  and  the  treasury  depleted,  and  the  young 
Gosoudar  had  to  begin  his  reign  by  appealing  for  substantial 
support  to  a  country  already  drained  by  contributions  and 
forced  distraints.  The  dieti-boyarins  and  small  landowners, 
on  whom  the  State  depended  for  military  service  against  the 
many  enemies  that  threatened  it,  were  unable  to  obtain  the 
necessary  sustenance  from  their  deserted  estates,  and  there 
were  no  means  of  supplying  the  wants  of  their  retainers 
from  the  empty  public  coffers.  A  letter,  signed  by  the 
Tzar,  was  sent  to  the  administrators  of  the  Perm  and 
Sibirian  provinces,  the  loyal  and  trusty  Stroganovs,  request- 
ing the  prompt  payment  of  all  outlying  debts  and  taxes  and 


XI 


"  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  "  315 


further  soliciting,  "  in  the  name  of  Christian  peace  and  rest," 
an  immediate  loan  of  money,  corn,  fish,  salt,  cloth,  and  all 
kinds  of  goods  for  the  payment  and  support  of  the  soldiery. 
Similar  letters  were  sent  to  the  principal  towns  and  districts 
of  the  gosoudarstvo.  Russian  convalescence  demanded 
feeding  and  strengthening  against  the  possibility  of  a  relapse. 
Dark  and  anxious  for  the  Moskvitchi  was  the  winter 
following  the  tzarskie  election  ;  sullen  and  ill -fed  troops 
quartered  within  the  capital,  and  without  bands  of  Kozaks 
prowling  like  wolves  about  the  country  ;  no  supplies  coming 
into  Moskva,  only  rumours  of  warlike  invasion  from  Lit'uania. 
The  thaws  of  spring  might  bring  with  them  Sigismund  and 
his  hetmans,  and  the  swallow  tribes  returning  to  their  nests 
on  the  Kreml  ramparts  might  once  again  be  greeted  with 
the  singing  of  the  Latins  in  the  holy  places  of  Orthodoxy. 
The  forebodings  of  Polish  invasion  passed  away,  however, 
with  the  winter  snows,  and  the  Tzar's  counsellors  were  able 
to  devote  their  attention  to  a  campaign  of  extermination 
against  Zaroutzkie  and  his  wild  horsemen.  The  kniaz  Ivan 
Odoevskie  was  dispatched  with  a  Moskovite  army  in  search 
of  the  Kozak  chief,  and  after  a  series  of  marchings  and 
counter-marchings  fell  in  with  him  not  far  from  Toula  ;  1614 
according  to  the  voevoda's  report,  Zaroutzkie  was  completely 
defeated  after  two  days'  continuous  fighting,  and  forced  to 
fly  across  the  Don  to  Medvieditz  with  a  few  followers, 
leaving  his  baggage  train,  standards,  and  many  prisoners  in 
the  victor's  hands.  The  chronicles  give  a  somewhat  different 
account  of  the  matter,  and  relate  that  the  rebel  leader 
repulsed  the  tzarskie  troops  and  retired  in  good  order  to 
Astrakhan,  leaving  a  devastated  country  behind  him.  What- 
ever the  actual  result  of  the  fighting,  the  disturbing  element 
was  at  least  removed  from  the  heart  of  the  empire,  and  the 
authorities  at  Moskva  were  able  to  open  up  negotiations 
with  the  Kozaks  of  the  Don  and  Volga  for  the  purpose  of 
detachincr  them  from  the  cause  of  Zaroutzkie  and  Marina 
and  enlisting  their  services  against  the  Lit'uanian  enemy. 
The  Tzar  sent  them  messengers  with  his  flag  and  exhorta- 
tions to  withdraw  their  allegiance  from  heretics  and  traitors  ; 


3l6  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

more  to  the  purpose,  he  was  able  to  send  them  supplies  of 
cloth,  provisions,  saltpetre,  and  lead.  The  Kozaks  greeted 
the  Tzar's  name  with  a  display  of  loyalty,  and  accepted  his 
presents,  but  they  did  not  show  a  readiness  to  enroll  them- 
selves under  his  flag  ;  there  seemed  indeed  a  possibility  that 
Zaroutzkie  would  succeed  in  gathering  under  his  leadership 
the  Volga  and  Don  freebooters  and  the  Tartars  of  Kazan, 
and  thus  shut  in  the  struggling  tzarstvo  between  his  forces 
on  the  east  and  those  of  Poland  on  the  west.  Letter  after 
letter  was  sent  from  Moskva  to  the  men  of  the  steppe,  and 
appeals  were  made  to  their  patriotism,  their  religion,  and 
their  cupidity.  The  downfall  of  Zaroutzkie  and  his  party 
was  brought  about,  however,  by  other  agency ;  in  dusty 
Astrakhan,  where  Marina  and  her  third  consort  held  their 
rebel  Court,  the  townsfolk,  resentful  of  the  violence  of  the 
Volga  Kozaks  who  were  quartered  on  them,  rose  in  rebellion. 
Zaroutzkie  was  driven  into  the  stone  town,  and,  on  the 
approach  of  a  body  of  Moskovite  strielitz,  the  Astrakhanese 
kissed  the  cross  and  beat  the  forehead  to  the  Tzar  Mikhail. 
The  desperate  adventurers  escaped  from  the  toils  which 
were  gathering  round  them,  and  fled  with  a  small  number  of 
adherents  along  the  wooded  banks  of  the  Volga.  Odoevskie 
had  arrived  on  the  scene  with  fresh  forces,  and  a  hot  pursuit 
was  kept  up  on  the  track  of  the  fugitives.  At  the  end  of 
June  the  enemies  of  Russia's  peace — Zaroutzkie,  the  ambition- 
borne  Marina,  and  her  four-year-old  son — fell  into  the  hands 
of  their  pursuers,  and  were  brought  back  in  triumph  to 
Astrakhan.  The  bold  and  stubborn  Kozak  kniaz  ended  his 
wild  career  by  the  horrible  death  of  impalement,  and  the 
Polish  ex-Tzaritza  was  torn  from  her  child  and  sent  in 
chains  to  Moskva,  closing  her  chequered  course  in  a  dungeon 
of  the  city  which  she  had  entered  as  a  monarch's  bride. 
Her  luckless  infant,  the  last  and  fittest  victim  of  the 
catastrophe  of  Ouglitch,  swung  on  a  gibbet  on  the  road  that 
runs  towards  Serpoukhov,  a  tender  and  pitiful  morsel  of 
gallows-fruit  for  the  Volga  daws  to  peck  at.  The  fate  of 
Zaroutzkie  and  the  extinction  of  the  last  pale  ghostling  of 
a  race  of  spectres  did  not  immediately  deter  the  wild  spirits 


XI 


"  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  "  317 


of  the  Steppes  from  struggling  against  the  elements  of  order, 
so  long  absent  from  the  land.  Bands  of  Kozaks,  swelled 
into  an  army  by  drafts  of  Russian  freebooters  and  fugitive 
serfs,  border  raiders  and  Tcherkesses,  raised  anew  the  flag  of 
rebellion  and  discord,  and  were  not  dispersed  till  an  over- 
bold rush  towards  Moskva  brought  upon  them  a  decisive 
defeat  on  the  banks  of  the  Loujha  (September  16 14).  At 
the  same  time  Lisovskie  kept  alive  the  cause  of  the  Polish 
prince  and  made  the  Sieverskie  land  the  base  of  operations 
for  his  light  and  seasoned  troops.  Nor  was  the  outlook 
more  hopeful  in  the  north  ;  besides  Great  Novgorod  and  the 
Water-ward  (one  of  the  five  districts  appertaining  to  that 
city),  the  Swedes  held  Keksholm,  Ivangorod,  Yam,  Kopor'e, 
Ladoga,  and  Staraia  Rousa.  The  Novgorodskie,  who  had 
handed  themselves  over  to  the  Swedish  prince  on  the 
supposition  that  he  would  be  chosen  Tzar  of  Russia,  found 
themselves,  by  the  election  of  Mikhail,  confronted  with  the 
alternative  of  revolt  against  their  accepted  sovereign  or 
separation  from  Moskovy.  The  citizens  would  willingly 
have  chosen  the  former  course,  but  the  Swedes  were  in 
forcible  possession,  and,  like  the  porcupine  of  the  fable,  were 
in  no  way  disposed  to  quit  the  quarters  into  which  they  had 
been  admitted.  Faced  with  the  necessity  of  increasing  their 
field  forces  to  cope  with  the  enemies  who  threatened  them 
on  every  side,  the  Russian  executive  were  obliged  to  make 
further  calls  upon  the  resources  of  the  gosoudarstvo  ;  the 
north-eastern  province,  the  youngest  of  all  the  Russian 
territories,  responded  manfully  to  the  Tzar's  requisitions, 
but  for  the  most  part  the  other  taxing  grounds  yielded  poor 
returns.  Equally  unproductive  was  the  experiment  in 
liquor  dealing,  by  which  the  Government  sought  to  augment 
their  revenue  by  monopolising  the  distilling  and  sale  of 
wines  and  spirits.  In  another  direction  they  were  more 
successful  in  seeking  for  assistance  ;  shortly  after  Mikhail's 
coronation  the  young  Tzar's  counsellors,  recalling  the  terms 
of  friendship  which  had  existed  aforetime  between  the  rulers 
of  Moskovy  and  the  Tudor  sovereigns  of  England,  dispatched 
an  embassy  to  the  Stewart  prince  who  had  stepped  into  the 


3i8  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 


inheritance  of  the  latter  dynasty.  King  James  was  appealed 
to  by  his  brother  monarch  for  urgently  needed  supplies  of 
gunpowder,  money,  lead,  sulphur,  and  other  munitions  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  war  of  self-defence,  and  also  for  the 
exertion  of  his  good  services  for  the  arrangement  of  an 
accommodation  with  Sweden.  It  was  characteristic  of  the 
British  negotiators  that  they  instinctively  sought  to  obtain 
concessions  for  their  merchants  to  trade  through  Russian 
waterways  direct  with  Persia,  India,  and  China,  characteristic 
perhaps  of  the  Moskovites  that  they  temporised,  raised 
obstacles,  and  finally  granted  nothing.  It  was  also  an 
honourable  episode  in  the  not  too  satisfactory  foreign  dealings 
of  the  Stewarts  that  the  refusal  did  not  alienate  the  good 
offices  which  were  put  forward  on  behalf  of  the  Tzar.  In 
August  1614  John  Merrick,  a  recently  knighted  merchant 
who  was  well  acquainted  with  Moskva,  came  to  that  city 
with  full  powers  from  the  King  of  Great  Britain  for  opening 
negotiations  between  Sweden  and  Russia.  Holland  had  also 
been  approached  on  the  same  subject,  and  Merrick  was 
joined  at  Novgorod  by  the  Dutch  ambassador  van  Brederode. 
At  the  same  time  that  the  Russian  Government  was  seeking 
the  intervention  and  aid  of  the  northern  sea  powers,  its 
agents  were  casting  about  among  the  military  states  of 
south-eastern  Europe  with  a  similar  object.  So  far  had  the 
dream  of  a  crusade  against  the  Crescent  faded  away  from 
Moskovite  imagination  before  the  nightmare  of  present  woes, 
that  the  young  Tzar  and  his  counsellors  were  anxious  to 
leag-ue  their  forces  with  those  of  the  Sultan  and  the  Tartar 
Khan  against  the  King  of  Poland,  and  negotiations  were  set 
on  foot  at  Constantinople  for  that  purpose.  The  Emperor, 
who  was  appealed  to  with  the  view  of  obtaining  by  diplomacy 
what  the  Turks  did  not  seem  likely  to  effect  by  war,  accepted 
the  post  of  mediator,  and  a  meeting  of  the  Russian  and 
1615  Polish  ambassadors  was  held  at  Smolensk,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  the  imperial  representative,  Erasmus  Handelius. 
As  the  Poles  began  by  demanding  that  Vladislav  should  be 
recognised  as  Tzar  of  Russia,  the  negotiations  did  not 
proceed  very  far,  and  the  German   returned  to  his   master 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  " 


319 


with  the  report  that  "  you  might  so  well  try  to  reconcile  fire 
and  water."  An  irregular  warfare  of  an  extraordinary 
character  preluded  the  opening  of  a  more  serious  campaign 
between  the  two  hate -hounded  States.  The  firebrand 
Lisovskie  kindled  the  blaze  of  strife  and  devastation  once 
more  in  the  Sieverskie  country,  and  with  his  light  horse- 
men, innured  to  fatigue  and  rapid  marches,  flitted  like 
a  will-o'-the-wisp  before  the  pursuing  troops  of  Dimitri 
Pojharskie.  Hunted  out  of  the  Sieverski  border,  he  passed 
swiftly  northward  by  Smolensk  and  Viasma,  harried  the 
slobodas  of  Rjhev,  turned  towards  Ouglitch,  and  subsequently 
burst  through  between  Yaroslavl  and  Kostroma  and  laid 
Souzdal  in  ashes  ;  from  thence  he  hied  into  the  Riazan 
province,  beat  off  the  attacks  of  the  Moskovite  voevodas,  and 
dashed  back  into  Lit'uania  by  way  of  Toula  and  Serpoukhov. 
In  the  north  meanwhile  the  walls  of  Pskov  had  once  more 
proved  a  bulwark  against  the  tide  of  Russia's  misfortunes, 
and  the  military  talents  which  the  young  Gustav-Adolf  had 
already  commenced  to  display  were  unable  to  bring  about 
the  reduction  of  that  stronghold.  This  check,  together  with 
the  Polish  and  Danish  wars  in  which  Sweden  was  involved, 
inclined  the  King  to  be  more  favourably  disposed  towards 
a  reasonable  accommodation  than  his  cousin  of  Poland  had 
shown  himself,  and  the  peace  negotiations  which  the  English 
and  Dutch  representatives  set  afoot  were  more  hopeful  of 
result  than  those  of  Smolensk.  The  foreign  envoys  saw  in 
the  miserable  desolation  of  the  border  districts  throueh 
which  they  travelled  evidence  of  the  distress  with  which 
Moskovy  was  still  afflicted.  Save  bands  of  Kozaks  skulking 
in  the  woods,  the  country-side  was  devoid  of  human  habitants; 
of  the  native  population  only  unburied  corpses  remained, 
and  at  night  the  howling  of  congregated  wolves  and  other 
beasts  of  prey  resounded  on  all  sides.  The  once  thriving 
town  of  Staraia  Rousa  was  a  heap  of  ruined  houses 
and  churches,  haunted  by  an  under-fed  remnant  of  scarcely 
100  men.  Such  were  the  scenes  amid  which  the  ambassadors 
of  the  two  contending  nations  and  their  mediators  commenced 
their  attempts  at  mutual  accommodation.      The  cool-headed 


320  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap, 

and  business-like  qualities  of  the  British  representative  were 
perhaps  the  deciding  factor  in  the  protracted  negotiations, 
and  towards  the  end  of  1616  Merrick  was  able  to  bring  the 
opposing  elements  together  in  the  village  of  Stolbova  to 
1617  discuss  the  final  terms  of  peace.  In  February  the  following 
year  the  treaty  of  Stolbova  was  signed,  its  principal  provisions 
being  :  that  Sweden  yielded  back  to  Russia  Great  Novgorod 
and  district,  Ladoga,  Staraia  Rousa,  and  some  smaller  places, 
but  retained  Ivangorod,  Yam,  Kopor'e,  Keksholm  and  the 
province  of  Korelia,  and  in  addition  received  a  sum  of  20,000 
roubles  ;  that  free  commercial  intercourse  should  obtain 
between  the  two  reconciled  countries  ;  and  that  immigrants 
from  the  west  should  have  free  access  to  the  Tzar's  dominions 
through  Swedish  territory.^  Merrick,  who  had  done  his 
utmost  to  secure  tolerable  terms  for  the  Russians,  further 
assisted  them  by  paying  down  the  money  demanded  by 
Sweden. 

The  peace  of  Stolbova  was  as  favourable  an  accommo- 
dation as  the  Tzar  could  reasonably  have  expected  to 
secure.  The  surrender  of  a  hopeless  pretension  to  the  last 
shred  of  Baltic  coast  still  further  checked  the  struggle  for 
an  outlet  seawards  which  had  been  pursued  for  the  last 
half-hundred  years  with  such  discouraging  result ;  but 
Moskovy  got  back  some  of  the  places  which  had  been  wrung 
from  her  weakness,  and  above  all  gained  breathing  time 
to  concentrate  her  energies  on  the  strife  with  the  arch- 
enemy Poland. 

Both  parties  had  made  preparation  for  pushing  the 
quarrel  to  the  uttermost.  The  Korolovitch '"  Vladislav  had, 
with  the  insistence  of  youth,  induced  the  Poles  to  support 
him  in  enforcing  his  election  to  the  throne  of  all  the  Russias, 
a  sovereignty  stretching  away  over  a  vast  expanse  of 
tributary  lands  till  it  was  almost  lost  on  the  horizon  of 
western  politics.  On  the  other  hand,  Mikhail  and  the 
Moskovites  were  braced  to  fight  for  their  faith,  their  father- 

1  S.  Solov'ev,  Kostomarov. 

'•^  King's  son,  a  convenient  designation  scarcely  reproduced  in  English  by  the 
somewhat  vague  "Prince";  "Crown  Prince,"  with  reference  to  an  elective 
monarchy,  being  of  course  inadmissible. 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL  " 


321 


land,  for  very  existence.  Vladislav's  enterprise  had  received 
the  cautious  sanction  of  the  Senate  and  the  more  unrestrained 
blessing  of  the  Archbishop  of  Warszawa,  and  in  a  schismatic-  1616 
Greek  church  in  the  old  Volhynian  capital,  Vladimir,  a 
standard  bearing  the  arms  of  Moskva  had  been  consecrated  ; 
a  standard  which  would,  it  was  hoped,  draw  the  Russians 
over  to  the  cause  of  the  Polish  pretender.  In  the  autumn 
of  1 6 16  a  detachment  under  the  hetman  Gonsievskie,  con- 
sisting of  a  small  but  capable  force,  moved  out  of  Smolensk 
towards  Dorogoboujh  and  camped  at  the  gorodok  of 
Tverdilitz.  Instantly  the  Tzar  ordered  his  voevodas  to 
make  a  dash  upon  Smolensk,  thus  cutting  off  Gonsievskie's 
line  of  communication  and  striking  at  the  enemy  on  their 
own  ground.  The  move  was  well  conceived  and  swiftly 
executed,  but  its  success  stopped  short  at  the  outworks  of 
Smolensk.  The  Russians  were  not  well  versed  in  the  art 
of  taking  a  city  by  sudden  assault,  and  their  leader, 
Boutourlin,  remained  helpless  in  his  intrenchments  for  the 
rest  of  the  year,  his  troops  exposed  to  attacks  from  the 
besieged  on  one  side  and  Gonsievskie's  skirmishers  on  the 
other,  and  reduced  to  feed  on  horse-flesh  for  want  of  other 
provisions.  The  new  year  witnessed  vigorous  action  on 
both  sides  ;  a  Polish  force  was  routed  by  a  Russian  detach-  1617 
ment  near  Dorogoboujh,  an  event  which  caused  much 
rejoicing  at  Moskva,  while  in  May  Gonsievskie  drove 
Boutourlin  from  before  the  walls  of  Smolensk.  The  same 
month  another  Polish  attack  on  Dorogoboujh  was  repulsed, 
and  the  Russians  hoped  at  least  to  maintain  an  effective 
defensive  resistance  to  the  invaders,  but  the  turn  of  the  year 
brought  with  it  worse  tidings.  In  July  the  hetman's  troops 
made  themselves  masters  of  Staritza,  Torjhok,  and  other 
places,  and  pushed  their  advance  guard  into  the  Bielozero 
district,  and  at  the  same  time  came  news  that  the  Korolo- 
vitch  himself  was  marching  with  a  fresh  army  upon  Moskva. 
At  the  end  of  August  Vladislav  effected  a  junction  with  the 
Malo-Russian  hetman  Khodkievitch,  and  two  months  later 
Dorogoboujh  and  Viasma  had  both  been  occupied  by  the 
conquering  Vasa.     Mikhail  saw  the  fate  of  his  forerunners 

Y 


322  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  CHAP. 

looming  large  upon  him,  and  already  perhaps  heard  the 
bells  of  Moskva  knelling  his  overthrow  or  the  crowds  of 
Krakow  jeering  at  his  misfortunes.  But  the  winter  season 
brought  with  it  a  respite  ;  the  Poles  were  beaten  back  from 
attacks  on  Tver  and  Mojhaysk,  and  in  December  Vladislav 
retreated  to  quarters  in  Viasma.  From  here  he  put  forward 
proposals  for  peace  negotiations,  hoping  perhaps  to  gain 
over  the  boyarins  and  people  to  his  side  without  recourse  to 
further  fighting.  The  Moskovites,  however,  answered  the 
Korolovitch  boldly,  and  seemed  as  little  disposed  to  yield  an 
inch  of  territory  as  he  was  to  abate  a  jot  of  his  pretensions. 
1618  The  first  six  months  of  the  ensuing  year  were  spent  in  fruit- 
less discussions,  during  which  time  hostilities  were  as  far  as 
possible  suspended.  On  the  29th  of  June  the  Poles  resumed 
the  offensive  by  an  assault  on  Mojhaysk,  which  was  defended 
with  spirit  against  this  and  several  subsequent  attacks. 
Seeing,  however,  the  hopelessness  of  prolonging  the  defence 
of  this  place  against  the  determined  efforts  of  the  Korolo- 
vitch's  army,  the  Russian  voevodas  withdrew  their  force  on 
the  dark  and  wet  night  of  the  first  of  August,  and  retired 
upon  Moskva.  Masters  of  Mojhaysk,  the  Poles  now  prepared 
to  clinch  their  successes  by  an  attack  on  the  capital  itself, 
and  Mikhail  saw  himself  threatened  in  his  last  stronghold. 
With  the  memory  of  Vasili  Shouyskie  and  Thedor  Godounov 
before  his  mind  the  young  Tzar  may  well  have  distrusted 
the  loyalty  which  was  nevertheless  all  that  remained  for  him 
to  trust  to,  and  it  was  not  without  reason  that  he  sought, 
by  a  solemn  assembly  of  the  sobor,  to  confirm  and  invigorate 
the  staunchness  of  his  subjects.  To  all  appearance  the  city 
was  lost.  On  one  side  advanced  the  Korolovitch  with  his 
victorious  army  as  far  as  the  village  of  Toushin,  of  evil 
memory  ;  on  the  other,  by  way  of  Kolomna,  bore  down  the 
Malo-Russian  hetman,  Sagaydatchnuiy,^  with  20,000  Kozaks. 
The  Moskovite  voevodas  stood  by  in  helpless  inactivity 
while  the  hetman  joined  his  forces  with  those  of  Vladislav, 
and  terror  settled  down  on  the  capital.  The  religious 
fanaticism  of  the  people  was  countered  by  their  super- 
^  Or  Saygadatchnuiy  ;  Solov'ev  uses  both  spellings. 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL 


323 


stition-soaked  imaginings,  and  the  appearance  of  a  comet 
some  millions  of  miles  above  them  in  the  skies,  "  over 
against  the  town,"  intensified  the  alarm  felt  at  the  more 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Polish  armies.  A  demand 
for  submission  sent  in  by  the  Korolovitch  restored  the 
defiant  humour  of  the  Moskvitchi ;  this  overture  was  more 
or  less  a  blind,  as  the  Poles  were  meditating  a  sudden 
assault,  but  their  designs  became  known  by  some  means  to 
the  citizens,  and  when,  on  the  night  of  the  ist  of  October, 
the  attack  was  made,  the  Russians  were  ready  for  it.  The 
Arbatskie  gate  was  stoutly  defended,  and  at  red  dawn  the 
Poles  were  driven  back  from  that  point ;  along  the  wall 
from  thence  to  the  Nikitskie  gate  the  efforts  of  the  assail- 
ants were  directed  with  no  better  result,  and  at  the  Tverskie 
gate  the  onslaught  failed  by  reason  of  the  scaling  ladders 
being  too  short  for  their  purpose.  Nowhere  could  the 
enemy  force  an  entrance,  and  the  Polish  hetmans  had  to 
draw  off  their  discomfited  troops  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  capital.  The  spell  which  had  hung  round  the  Korolo- 
vitch's  advance  was  broken,  and  he  found  himself  at  the 
commencement  of  winter  in  the  heart  of  a  hostile  country, 
whose  inhabitants  only  needed  the  heartening  effect  of  a 
success  to  rouse  them  on  all  sides  against  him.  Under 
these  circumstances  Vladislav  gave  permission  to  his 
advisers  to  open  fresh  negotiations  with  the  Moskovite 
boyarins  of  state,  and  Lev  Sapieha,  Adam  Novodvorskie 
(Bishop  of  Kaminiec),  and  three  other  notables  were  em- 
powered to  treat  for  the  arrangement  of  a  peace.  But  not- 
withstanding the  difficulty  of  keeping  together  a  discouraged 
and  ill-paid  army  and  the  instructions  which  came  from 
Sigismund  to  bring  the  war  to  a  speedy  conclusion,  the 
Polish  prince  was  loth  to  relinquish  the  sovereignty  which 
had  seemed  so  nearly  within  his  grasp,  and  placed  the  terms 
of  compensation  too  high  for  Russian  acceptance.  The 
negotiations  which  had  been  opened  near  Moskva  on  the 
bank  of  the  Priesna  were  broken  off,  and  the  Korolovitch 
once  more  assumed  the  offensive.  Neither  the  capital  nor 
the  walls  of  the  Troitza  offered  a  very  promising  point  of 


324  THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap. 

attack,  and  a  retreating  detachment  of  Poles  was  overtaken 
and  defeated  near  Bielozero,  but  the  ravages  of  the  Dniepr 
Kozaks,  who  were  undeterred  in  their  rangings  by  the  bitter 
winter  weather,  disposed  the  Moskovites  to  renew  the  pro- 
posals for  a  peaceable  settlement.  At  length,  in  the  village 
of  Deoulino,  three  verstas  from  the  Troitza  monastery,  a 
truce  of  fourteen  years  and  six  months  was  agreed  upon. 
Vladislav  left  Mikhail  in  possession  of  the  throne  of  Moskva, 
but  retained  the  empty  consolation  of  styling  himself  Tzar  ; 
on  the  other  hand  Russia  yielded  up  to  Poland  a  long  list 
of  towns,  most  of  which  had  been  snatched  from  her  during 
the  fatal  "  Time  of  the  Troubles,"  and  which  she  was  now 
too  weak  to  recover.  Smolensk,  Tchernigov,  Roslavl, 
Novgorod-Sieverskie  and  district,  Starodoub,  Dorogoboujh, 
Serpeysk,  Nevl,  and  some  lesser  places  were  the  price  the 
gosoudarstvo  had  to  pay  for  the  peace  which  had  been  so 
long  absent  from  the  land  ;  Viasma,  Mojhaysk,  and  some 
other  Pole-held  towns  were  given  back  to  the  tzarstvo,  and 
an  exchange  of  prisoners  was  concerted,  by  virtue  of  which 
Filarete  Romanov  and  the  voevoda  Shein  were  restored  to 
their  country.  (Vasili  Shouyskie  had  died  in  captivity  at 
Warszawa  some  years  previously.)  The  ikon  of  S.  Nikolai 
of  Mojhaysk,  venerated  by  the  Russians  as  a  living  being, 
and  seized  by  the  Poles  as  a  spoil  of  war,  was  also  included 
in  the  stipulated  restitutions.^  On  the  ist  of  December 
1618  the  Truce  of  Deoulino  was  signed,  and  with  the 
opening  of  the  new  year  Mikhail  saw  the  waters  of 
destruction  recede  from  around  his  long-menaced  throne. 
As  the  Polish  eagles  went  winging  homeward  the  land 
settled  down,  almost  for  the  first  time  in  the  century,  to  a 
period  of  peace  and  security,  and  the  figurative  "  voice  of 
the  turtle "  arose  once  more  in  the  forests  and  fields  of 
Moskovy.  In  June  1619  the  inhabitants  of  the  capital 
went  out  with  their  ubiquitous  ikons  and  crosses  to  receive 
the  restored  Filarete,  who  had  been  elected  to  the  vacant 
Patriarchate,  and  as  the  bells  rang  out  their  welcome  to  the 
returning  Vladuika  Mikhail  hailed  with  joy  a  father  and  a 

*  S.  Solov'ev ;  De  Koch  and  Schoell,  Histoire  aMgie  des  Traitis  de  Paix. 


XI  "  THIS  SIDE  THE  HILL 


325 


counsellor,  the  Church  obtained  a  head,  and  the  gosoudarstvo 
an  able  administrator.     State  and  Church  emerged  together 
from  the  maelstrom  which  had  swept  over  them  both,  and  in 
the  persons  of  Thedor  and   Mikhail   Romanov  the  Russian 
Empire  had  found  the  dynasty  which  was  to  nurture  it  to  a 
giant  growth  and  guide  it  forward  on  the  path  of  power. 
The   conclusion  of  the    treaties  of  Stolbova  and    DeouHno 
drove   deep  wedges  into   the  territory  of  the  tzarstvo  and 
thrust  Moskovy  back  yet  farther  from  the  Baltic  and  from 
Western    Europe ;    but    all    the    elements    of   survival    and 
absorption  were  present  in  the  momentarily  weakened  state. 
While  Sweden,  devoid  of  natural  resources,  was  manuring  a 
fitful  crop  of  laurels  and  grafted  possessions  with  the  blood 
of  magnificently  disciplined  armies,  the  wealth  of  Perm  and 
Sibiria  and  the  trade  of  Makar'ev  and   Azov  was  pouring 
into  Russia  the  life-spring  of  recuperation,  the  wherewithal 
to  wring  victory  from  defeat,  and  weary  down  less  enduring 
opponents.     And  while  the  Poles  were  opening  wider  and 
wider   the   doors  of  their  Constitution  to  every  species   of 
privileged  obstruction  and  respectable  anarchy,  the  Mosko- 
vites,  warned  by  past  experiences,  and  constrained  by  the 
grim  spectre  of  the  scaffold  on  the  Red   Place — which  was 
not  always  a  mere  spectre — were  "  beating  the  forehead  "  to 
the  sovereign  authority  as  unreservedly  as  they  had  done  in 
the  days  of  the  fearsome  Ivan.     With  the  firm  establishment 
of  the   first   Romanov  on  the   throne  the  Russian   Empire 
became  an  accomplished  fact,  and  the  ground  was  prepared 
for  the  work  of  his  famous  grandson.      This  was  the  turning- 
point  of  the  long  struggle  for  existence,  and  from  thence- 
forth  the  two-headed   eagle,  blazoned   with    S.  George  the 
Conqueror,    soars    ever    more    prominently    in    the    eastern 
heavens.      With  the  consecration  of  the  Patriarch  Filarete  in 
the  Ouspienskie  Cathedral,  in  the  presence  of  the  Tzar  and 
the  high  boyarins,  prelates,  and  councillors,  nobles,  clergy, 
and  people,  with  the  historic  jewel-wrought  Bogoroditza  of 
Vladimir  shedding  its  sacred  lustre  on  the  assembled  throng, 
and  the  crown  of  Monomachus  sparkling  in  the  light  of  the 
illuminating  tapers,  closes  the  last  scene  of  the  grounding  of 


;26 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  chap,  xi 


the  Russian  Empire  ;  and  here  naay  be  fitly  quoted,  from 
the  old  Slavonic  saga,  "  Oh,  men  of  the  Russian  land, 
already  are  you  this  side  the  hill." 


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GLOSSARY 

OF  RUSSIAN  WORDS  EMPLOYED  WITHOUT  EXPLANATION  IN  TEXT 


Baba  yaga 

witch  in  Slavonic  myth 

Bogoroditza 

Mother-of-God 

gorod     . 

town 

gosoudarstvo   . 

realm,  sovereignty 

ikon 

picture  of  a  saint  in  relief 

kolokol   . 

church  bell 

lavra 

monastery  of  superior  grade 

ohlast 

district,  region 

posadnik 

mayor  of  free  city 

sobor 

national  council  or  Parliament ;  cathedral 

Spasskie 

of-the-Saviour 

Strielitz 

body-guard,  originally  archers 

velikie    . 

great,  grand 

vetchi     . 

town  or  communal  council 

voevoda  . 

military  commander 

zamok     . 

castle 

INDEX 


Aleksandr  Nevskie,  96,  100 
Aleksis,  Metropolitan  and  Saint,  126 
Anastasie  Romanov,  201 
Andrei,  Prince  of  Souzdal,  62 

death  of,  65 
Astrakhan,  khanate  of,  149 

annexed  by  Moskovy,  207 

Baltic  trade,  60 

Batory  (Stefan),  241 

Batu,  89 

Bela  III.,  King  of  Hungary,  70 

Bela  IV.,  King  of  Hungary,  88,  94 

Boris  Sviatoslavitch,  44 

Boris  Godounov,  253 

elected  Tzar,  265 
Bulgaria  (Balkan  principality),  8,  28 
Bulgaria  (Volga  principality),  9,  36,  83.  89 

Calendar,    reform    of,    not    adopted    in 

Russia,  255 
Christianity,  introduction  of,  in  Russia,  38 

40 
Constantinople,  8 

Russian   expeditions    against,    16.    20, 

23.  50 
Latin  conquest  of,  74 
taken  by  the  Turks,  146 
Moskovite  relations  with,  161 

Daniel  Romanovitch,  87 

"  King  of  Galitz,"  99 

death  of,  106 
Dimitri  Donskoi,  127 

defeats  Mongols,  131 
Dimitri — Tzarevitch,  249 

death  of,  260 
Dimitri  (False),  see  Ljhedimitri 
Dorpat,  founded,  47 

Elizabeth     Queen    of     England,    corre- 
spondence with  Ivan  IV.,  222 
England,  Moskovite  intercourse  with,  208 
Mediation    of,    between    Russia    and 
Sweden,  318 


Gardie,  de  la,  Swedish  General,  245 

Jacob,  294,  297 
Gedimin,  Duke  of  Lifuania,  115 

death  of,  120 
German  artillerists  in  Moskovite  service, 

187 
Glieb  Sviatoslavitch,  44 
Glinski,  Mikhail,  175,  180,  196 
Godounov  dynasty  established,  265 

overturned,  277 
Greek  artists  at  Moskva,  146 
Grodno,  founded,  103 

Habsburgh,  candidate  for  Polish  Crown. 
236,  241 
despoiled  by  Ivan  III.,  163 
Hanse    League,    factory    at    Novgorod. 

Towns,  Treaty  with  Novgorod,  139 
Henri  de  Valois,  elected  King  of  Poland, 

=39  .  o      ■ 

Hungary,   intervention    m  west    Russian 

affairs,  70,  87 

invaded  by  Mongols,  94 

contested  succession  to  throne,  160 

Igor,  Prince  of  Kiev,  17 

death  of,  26 
Igor,  "Song  of,"  67-69 
Isiaslav  I. ,  Prince  of  Kiev.  53 
Ivan  Kalita,  Grand-Prince,  114 
Ivan  Ivanovitch,  Grand-Prince,  126 
Ivan  III.,  149 

marriage     with     Sophie     Paleologus, 

quarrels  with  Lit  uania,  164 

death,  173 
Ivan  IV.,  19s 

coronation,  201 

marriages,  201,  234,  235,  244 

wars  with  Poland  and  Sword  Order, 
208.  243 

death,  249 
Ivan  Ivanovitch,  Tzarevitch,  207 

killed  by  his  father,  246 


INDEX 


333 


Kalka.  battle  of,  84 

Kazan,  khanate  of,  144,  149 

annexed  to  Moskovy,  205 
Khazars,  9,  28 
Kiev,  first  mention  of,  15 

becomes  capital  of  Russian  State,  18 

increased  importance  of,  51 

stormed  by  Souzdalian  force,  63 

decline  of  fortunes,  62 

stormed  by  Mongols,  92 

lost  to  Russia,  124 
Krim  Tartars,   149,   165,  179,  186,  198, 

232,  262 
Kozaks,  origin  of,  192 

western,  in  Polish  service,  260, 296,  310 

of  the  Don,  248,  273,  291.  303,  315 

Lit'uania,  6,  70 

first  historical  Duke  of,  loi 

aggrandisement  of,  115 

Conversion  to  Christianity,  134 

Moskovite  campaigns  against,  128,  165 

Union  with  Poland,  224 
Li  viand,  6 

military  conversion  of,  74,  77 

campaigns  in,  168,  208,  240,  244 
Ljhedimitri,  appearance  of,  272 

success  of  his  enterprise,  277 

overthrow,  284 

speculations  as  to  his  origin,  285 
Ljhedimitri  IL ,  291 

death  of,  301 
Lubetch,  "  carpet-council  "  at,  55 

Makar'ev,  fair  of,  190 

Marina  Mnishek,    273,    282,    292,    301, 

316 
Martha  of  Novgorod,  150,  155 
Mengli-Girei,  156,  182 
Mikhail  Romanov,  312 
Money,  early  form  of,  51 
Mongols,  81 

invade  Russia,  83 

invade  Poland,  93 

invade  Hungary,  94 

Russian  subjection  to,  97 

defeated  at  Koulikovo,  131 

sack  Moskva,  132 

bloodless  overthrow,  157 
Moskva,  founding  of,  62 

resists  Lit'uanians,  128 

becomes  Metropolitan  city,  118 

stormed  by  Mongols,  132 

growing  supremacy  of,  147 

description  of,  177 

Court  Life  at,  183 

terrorised  by  Ivan  IV.,  229 

burnt  by  Tartars,  233 

occupied  by  Poles,  300 


Mother-of-God   of  Vladimir,    62,    137, 

266,  311,  314 
Mstislav  (of  Tmoutorokan),  46 
Mstislav  (of  Toropetz),  75,  81,  87 

Novgorod  the  Great,  10,  27,  30 

foreign  trade  with,  60 

internal  affairs  of,  61,  103 

victory  over  Souzdal,  64 

quarrels  with  Moskva,  139,  151 

humiliated  by  Ivan  III.,  155 

punished  by  Ivan  IV.,  225 

taken  by  Swedes,  304 

restored  to  Moskovy,  320 
Novgorod  (Nijhnie-)  306 
Novgorod-Sieverski,  273,  324 

Oleg,  Prince  of  Kiev,  17 
Olga,  19,  26 

Conversion  to  Christianity,  27 
Olgerd,  Grand  Duke  of  Lit'uania,  124 
Opritchniki,  instituted,  218 

abolished,  239 
Orsha,  battle  of,  181 

Orthodox     Church,     quarrels     with    the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  73,  153. 

and  Council  of  Florence,  142 

fast  observances,  122 

in  harmony  with  State,  122 

crusade  against  foreign  influences,  306 

Papacy,   dealings   with    Russia,    74,   99, 

152,  171 

and  Gedimin,  116 

and  the  False  Dimitri,  281 

and  Daniel  of  Galitz,  99 
Perm,  evangelisation  of,  134 
Peroun,  Slavonic  Deity,  4 

worship  overthrown,  40 
Petchenigs,  19,  22,  29,  34,  42,  48 
Pojharskie,  Prince,  302,  308 
Poland,  9,  48 

wars  with,  45,  179,  243 

election  to  throne  of,  236,  241,  256 

intervention  in  Russian  troubles,  296 

Pacta  Conventa,  239 
Polotzk  (Prince  of),  55 

siege  of,  214 
Polovtzi,  54,  67,  70,  72,  81 
Pskov,  27,  76,  104,  107,  119,  168,  176, 

24s 

Riga,  78,  167 

Roman  (Prince  of  Novgorod),  64 

becomes  Prince  of  Galitz,  71 

his  death,  72 
Romanov  family,  201,  312 

"Filarete,"  269,  293,  313,  324 


334 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 


Rurik,  14 

Russia,  physical  conditions  of,  i 
condition  of,  under  early  princes,  79 
in  the  Time  of  the  Troubles,  305 

Sarai,  97 

Serfs,  264 

Sergie,  Saint,  131 

Sibiria,  conquest  of,  247 

Simeon,  Grand  Prince,  121 

Shouyskie,  family,   181,    195,  197,   200, 

253.  258 
Shouyskie,  Vasili,  261,  274,  278,  283 

elected  Tzar,  287 

deposed,  298 
Skopin-Shouyskie,  294,  297 
Skouratov,  Maluta,  213,  240 
Slavs,  distribution  of,  2 

customs  of,  4 
Smolensk,  annexed  to  Lithuania,  136 

captured  by  Moskovites,  180 
Sobor  (national   Parliament),   223,   265, 

313 
Souzdal,  62,  63,  136 
Stefan  of  Moldavia,  158 
Stolbova,  Treaty  of,  320 
Sviatopalk,  Grand  Prince  of  Kiev,  43,  46 
Sviatoslav,  Prince  of  Kiev,  26 

expedition  into  Bulgaria,  29 

defeated  by  Greeks,  33 

destroyed  by  Petchenigs,  34 
Sweden,    Russian  wars  with,    163,   207, 

239.  259,  304 
Sword  Brethren,  instituted,  74 

amalgamated  with  Teutonic  Order,  89 

Tannenberg,  battle  of,  140 
Tchernigov,  46,   51,  53,  63,  68,  71,  92, 
96,  273,  324 


Teutonic  Order,  77 

wars  with  Poland,  140,  185 

secularised  into  Duchy  of  Prussia,  i^ 
Troitza,  monastery  of,  131,  306  "^ 

siege  of,  293 
Troops,  Moskovite,  equipment  of,  165 

liable  to  panic,  167  ^ 

Turkey,  Russian  relations  with,  161,  232 
Tver,  109,  114,  133,  159 
Tzar,  meaning  of  title,  159 

title  first  used  at  coroa^ion,  201 
Thedor  Ivanovitch,  253  ' 
Thedor  Godounov,  276 

Urii  (Prince  of  Souzdal),  62 

Varangians,  12 

Vasili  (Grand  Prince  of  Moskva),  135 
Vasili  "  the  Darkened,"  141 
Vasili  III.,  173 

second  marriage  of,  190 

death  of,  192 
Viatka,  139 

Vitovt,  Grand  Duke  of  Lit'uania,  135 
Vladimir  the  Holy,  30,  35 

conversion  to  Christianity,  39 

death  of,  43 
Vladimir  "  Monomachus,"  54 

becomes  Prince  of  Kiev,  56 

his  testament,  56 
Vladimir,  town  of,  62,  65,  90.  118 
Vsevolod,  Grand  Prince  of  Souzdal,  66, 


Yagiello,  Grand  Duke  of  Lit'uania,  129 
elected  to  Polish  Crown,  133 

Yaroslav  "  the  Great,"  36,  46 
his  death,  51 

Zaroutzkie,  303,  313,  316 


THE    END 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinburgh 


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